The number of those who looked through their fingers at the end was already apparent before the trial at the Vienna Criminal Court began: a much larger room was needed to accommodate all those involved. Two hours late, two alleged fraudsters – 28 and 41 years old – had to answer in court yesterday. The Austrians are said to have recruited 79 investors in Austria via the Internet and through personal mediation from 2018 to 2019 and cheated them out of their money. According to the indictment, the damage caused is said to be well over one million euros.
They had entered the cryptocurrency business with good intentions, the two defendants said.
A hacker attack as evil
The two men met at the end of 2017 and decided to “legally broker money for real people”. To this end, the duo founded the association “Da Vinci Fintech Executives Switzerland” in Switzerland in order to appear on the Internet as an exclusive and private investment club.
The association promised potential investors high returns of 2.5 percent per week and 10 percent per month. “That was also possible. We paid investors their profits for eleven months,” said one of the accused.
In May 2019, a hacker attack caused a big crash. “The bitcoins have lost half their value. We could no longer pay out the customers,” said the 28-year-old. There had been discussions about ending the business. But things turned out differently: the customers were not informed. The two men continued to work in the hope that the market would recover. For the prosecutor, a pyramid scheme of fraud.
“Promises of utopian returns are made, and the first customers only get a profit if new customers invest. If there are no customers, the system collapses,” she said. Initially, the investors at the time were always repaid smaller amounts. The payments finally came to an end in 2021 – more and more victims reported to the police. Both men were arrested last summer. They face up to ten years in prison.
A verdict is still a long time coming: at least two more days of the trial are needed. The defendants pleaded partially guilty.
Source: Nachrichten
