The names of the suspects were not released by the PF, but the Brazilian press assures that the head of the network is Francisley Valdevino da Silvanicknamed the “Sheikh of bitcoins”.
The raids were authorized by a court in Curitiba (south), as part of an investigation for suspicions, among other crimes, of international money laundering and fraud.
According to the G1 news site, several footballers have been scammed, as have Sasha Menegel, daughter of Xuxa, the Brazilian television star children’s entertainer, who allegedly entrusted 1.2 million reais (about $230,000) to the gang.
The main suspect “formed a criminal organization with several members of his family to appropriate the amounts invested, in reais or in cryptocurrencies, by the victims,” the PF specified.
The investigation in Brazil began in March, based on information transmitted by the US authorities through Interpol, which evokes a network of “laundering of millions (of dollars) through a system of pyramidal investments in cryptocurrencies.”
It would be the pyramid scheme known as ponzi scheme: the first investors, who are promised extraordinary profits, are remunerated with the money of the following ones.
The victims expected to obtain “a monthly remuneration of up to 20%” of the invested capital. In Brazil alone, the amount amassed in six years by the alleged criminals “could reach almost 4,000 million reais (about 770 million dollars),” according to the police.
Instead of being invested in the cryptocurrency market, these staggering sums “were used to purchase real estate, jewelry, cars, boats, and luxury clothing.”
Photos released by the PF show the seizure of gold bars, Rolex watches, bottles of wine, and bills in reais and US dollars.
The raids carried out on Thursday were baptized as “Operation Poyais”alluding to a famous 19th-century swindle in England.
A Scottish general, Gregor MacGregor, had sold false title deeds in Poyais, a fictitious town he said was located in a British colony in the Caribbean.
Source: Ambito
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