Crypto Behind Bars: Arrests Making Headlines Across the Globe

Caught in the headlights: Thai actor "Boom" arrested on set for alleged crypto fraud family affair.

Just days after Stefansson's Amsterdam stint, police in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin seized 600 computers used to mine Bitcoin, after abnormal electricity usage attracted the attention of the local power grid operator.

Last month, Californian police nabbed a hacker who allegedly stole Bitcoin worth over $1 million via a series of so-called 'SIM-swapping' heists - also known as 'port-out scams.

According to cybercrime blog Krebs on Security, the investigators interviewed several alleged victims of Narvaez, one of whom claimed he was robbed of $150,000 in crypto after his SIM was hijacked.

As law enforcement closed in on this host of spry and unabashed millennial SIM swappers, in August, a U.S. investor filed a $224 million lawsuit, taking on telecoms giant AT&T. Michael Terpin accused the firm of alleged negligence, claiming that $24 million in crypto was stolen via a "Digital identity theft" of his cell phone account.

The allegedly defrauded victims had reportedly contacted Shanghai police, who "Summoned" the CEO to a police station on Sept. 10 to "Put [him] through a round of questioning to get to the bottom of the rumors," as tech news source ZeroHedge wrote at the time.

A photograph of a police report about Xu on local news outlet Sina Technology appeared to confirm that the police had been notified at 5:59 p.m. on Sept. 10.

The investors are again alleged to have followed his trail, whereupon Xu called a group of "Henchmen" to join him at the police station.

"In Shanghai, someone reported that I was defrauding. I went to the police station to explain the situation and proved to the police that I did not swindle."

Amid the flurry of "Twisted" media reports, one viral anecdote alleged that the band of investors had brought a hungry - and short-of-cash - Xu some sustenance, namely dumplings, as he underwent questioning at the police station.