A Bitcoin Ponzi scheme accomplice who defrauded investors of more than $722 million in a long-running crypto scheme has pleaded guilty to all charges, as we are reading more in the upcoming Bitcoin scam news.
One of four men charged with defrauding investors of more than $722 million in a long-running crypto mining scheme pleaded guilty to charges against him as a Bitcoin ponzi scheme accomplice. The man from Romania, a programmer called Silviu Catalin Bacali, was arrested in Germany back in 2019 and he was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to offer and sell unregistered securities. He is now facing 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. Three others, Russ Albert Medlin, Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, and Joseph Frank Abel were also charged in the United States the same month.
The prosecutors alleged that the scheme was operational between April 2014 and December 2019 solicited money from investors in exchange for shares in crypto mining pools. Investors were awarded bonuses for getting more investors into the network. The indictment cites correspondence between Balaci and Goettsche in which they discussed how to make earnings from fake mining and referred to their investors as “sheep.” While the other defendants offered investors a choice to invest in three different mining pools, Bacali said he was unaware that BitcLub Network operated more than one pool.
Furthermore, the correspondence between the Romanian programmer and Goettsche from 2015, shows that Bacali was even asked to “bump up the daily mining earnings starting today by 60%” in which he said that it’s not going to be sustainable and they will evidently enter Ponzi territory. He was charged with changing figures in order to mislead investors at his accomplice’s needs. Bacali confirmed the allegations of the prosecutors that the scheme managed to drain $722 million worth of BTC from the investors’ pockets.
According to other reports, there were more allegations that BitClub launched a new attack on the Bitcoin network. The scheme was also flagged as suspicious one by crypto media news outlet 99Bitcoins back in 2016. Bitcoin Ponzi schemes are not something we are unfamiliar with as they are easy to operate and lure investors by promising huge returns.
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