Austria: Fraudster duo built fastball system with Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies are currently in free fall. This is not only due to skyrocketing energy prices, which have made it much more difficult to mine Bitcoin and other digital means of payment. Negative headlines that put a big question mark over the security of cryptocurrencies in particular have also contributed to the downward spiral. Another headline that should send a cold shiver down the spine of Bitcoin owners now comes from Austria. There, two men are alleged to have defrauded more than 100 Bitcoin stakeholders.

Father and son set up pyramid scheme

A criminal duo consisting of a father and son have managed to scam a total of 13 million euros in Austria as the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office announced. The 81 and 58 years old men are to have built up thereby a snow ball system, with which you are to have cheated over 100 humans from the German-speaking countries. In the focus of the fraud circle were investments in Bitcoin. With the promise of beckoning returns, they were able to lure their victims into the trap and extract corresponding money. As a result of an anonymous tip, the team and eight possible participants were tracked down. The Vienna Regional Court has now passed the corresponding verdict. This regarded it as proven that father and son could lure under pretense of a beckoning commission ever more persons into the snow ball system.

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Offered investment in bitcoin

Furthermore, they promised their investors that professional traders would use to invest profitably in cryptocurrencies. The truth was different. Thus, the two used the scammed amount of millions to live in luxury. This came to an end when the Austrian Federal Criminal Police Office was able to arrest the son in Bulgaria in the fall of 2021. The investigators were also able to arrest the 81-year-old father. The younger of the two seems to have been the mastermind of the fraud. This is at least the conclusion of the verdict. He was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, while the father’s sentence was 30 months, 20 of which were suspended.