Two Nigerian nationals have been indicted by U.S. prosecutors for allegedly running a fraudulent bitcoin investment scheme.
The Oregon District Attorney's Office announced Wednesday that the defendants, Onwuemerie Ogor Gift and Kelvin Usifoh, are charged with 11 counts of wire fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
From December 2017 to June 2018, Gift and Usifoh are said to have promoted the fake bitcoin investment scheme via three websites - wealthcurrency.com, boomcurrency.com and merrycurrency.com - promising investors 20-50 percent risk-free returns with instant withdrawals.
Gift and Usifoh falsely claimed that victims' bitcoins would be invested using "Unique trading methods" and that they would maintain a "Constant high interest rate." The pair also allegedly encouraged investors to transfer bitcoin to their own cryptocurrency wallets.
Once transferred, Gift and Usifoh would exchange it for their local currency, Nigerian naira.
In over six months, the defendants stole 10.88 bitcoins from three victims, one residing in Oregon and two in California, according to the indictment.
In total, the prosecutors allege Gift and Usifoh received more than 50 bitcoins through the scam.
Largely due to their pseudonymous, online nature, cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular as a means to scam investors.
Last month, New York prosecutors charged a man in a nine-count indictment for duping investors out of over $200,000 in cryptocurrency and cash.
Warning cryptocurrency investors over such schemes, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission jointly issued an alert earlier this week, saying that claims such as "Risk-free", "Absolutely safe" and "Guaranteed profit" are hallmarks of a fraud.
US Prosecutors Charge 2 Foreign Nationals Over Bitcoin Investment Scam
gepubliceerd op Apr 26, 2019
by Coindesk | gepubliceerd op Coinage
Coinage
Vermeld in dit artikel
Recent nieuws
Alles zien
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.