- Crypto scammer arrested in Spain, defrauding €20M from victims across Europe through fake cryptocurrency exchanges.
- Luxury items, €16K cash, and €20M in crypto seized from fraudster’s Marbella villa during a major operation.
- A crypto laundering operation was dismantled, and €238K cash, luxury watches, and high-end assets were seized across Europe.
A 24-year old Dutch man has been arrested by the Spanish National Police for running a massive cryptocurrency fraud that generated him €20 million. The suspect, who had a fraud network that preyed on people across Europe, was arrested in Marbella on 17 September as part of a six-month operation by the National Police’s Cybercrime Unit. The Geld operation led to the identification of assets, among which €16,000 in cash and virtual assets, and as of today worth €20 million.
According to a recent report, Police followed the suspect from the Netherlands to Spain where he was living in expensive villas while on the move to evade arrest. He was living in luxurious villas on the Costa del Sol, one of which was in Nueva Andalucía with two swimming pools, a gym and a panic room. These measures to avoid attracting attention were meant to shield him as he went about the business of cleaning the money he had made through fraud. Besides the €16,000 in cash, the investigators also seized many expensive items and high-end watches at the property.
Laundering Money via Crypto
The suspect, who worked in tandem with his family, targeted his victims in their efforts to exchange virtual property for real currency. First, he gained credibility with the help of social network and encrypted messaging applications to perform some small operations with cryptocurrency. But when the amounts were relatively large, he will just disappear and the money will be gone and the person would be left with nothing. They were people from the criminal underworld of the Costa del Sol and the crimes included drug dealing and the money was cleansed through the con.
Other assets were also seized when the suspect’s safe house in Mijas, Spain, and his mother and partner’s homes in the Netherlands were searched. In all, the investigators seized €238,000 in cash, watches worth €600,000, and jewelry and other personal belongings worth over €500,000.
This operation is one of the biggest confiscations of virtual assets in Europe. The operation not only disassembled a major cryptocurrency scam but also revealed the advancement of crypto in money laundering schemes related to organized crime. Officials have said that there may be other unidentified assets that are associated with the suspect’s criminal operations.
