You mean, another boomer generation fell for the Nigerian prince scam?
More Crypto Fraud
- Thread starter gwb-trading
- Start date
Crypto Company
This wasn't a company though. It was an obvious joke/meme thing that everyone knew it was a joke from day one. Except, some millenialtards didn't know what a joke meme coin was and went full-retard like it was supposed to be a 'new' Bitcoin.
This wasn't a company though. It was an obvious joke/meme thing that everyone knew it was a joke from day one. Except, some millenialtards didn't know what a joke meme coin was and went full-retard like it was supposed to be a 'new' Bitcoin.
Ric Flair has launched his own cryptocurrency; what could possibly go wrong? Start the clock for countdown to fraud fiasco headline.
Ric Flair Announces New Cryptocurrency Endeavor
https://www.hausofwrestling.com/2023/12/22/ric-flair-announces-new-cryptocurrency-endeavor/
Ric Flair Announces New Cryptocurrency Endeavor
https://www.hausofwrestling.com/2023/12/22/ric-flair-announces-new-cryptocurrency-endeavor/
Coinbase is the worst platform I have ever used. Both withdrawals and transfers require a long time limit. It’s annoying.
Doesn't that make it more secure for those who had a hacked account?
People who phish like to get in and run with your cash ASAP. They don't like waiting around for you to notice what's happening...
People who phish like to get in and run with your cash ASAP. They don't like waiting around for you to notice what's happening...
Man accused of running crypto ‘Ponzi scheme’ arrested in South Florida
German national Horst Jicha falsely promised big returns to US investors, federal prosecutors allege
https://www.local10.com/news/local/...rypto-ponzi-scheme-arrested-in-south-florida/
A man arrested in Broward County just before Christmas is accused in federal court of being one of the masterminds behind a cryptocurrency “Ponzi scheme,” according to an indictment unsealed late Tuesday.
Horst Jicha, 64, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, using manipulative or deceptive devices, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.
It’s not clear what Jicha, described in the indictment as a German national who resided in Brazil and Spain, was doing in South Florida at the time of his arrest. He was booked into the Broward County jail Friday on a U.S. Marshals hold and was no longer listed in local jail records as of Wednesday morning.
According to the indictment, issued in late August, Jicha was a founder and the CEO of a company called “USI-Tech,” which was purportedly incorporated in the United Arab Emirates and claimed to make “cryptocurrency mining and trading accessible to the average retail investor through its online platform.”
The indictment also includes unnamed co-conspirators.
USI-Tech, short for “United Software Intelligence,” used a multilevel marketing sales strategy. Prosecutors allege that in 2017, Jicha and others aggressively promoted the company in the U.S., falsely promising 140% returns over 140 days on a 50-euro “BTC package.”
Cryptocurrency news website CoinCentral described the company as a “classic crypto Ponzi.”
Jicha urged investors to buy multiple packages to compound their returns, according to the indictment.
According to prosecutors, the multilevel marketing aspect of the company allowed Jicha to distance himself from any false claims investors may have made as they tried to market the product to others and avoid the legal responsibility that comes with marketing investment products.
Authorities allege that Jicha assured investors at an event at a casino in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania that USI-Tech was “not a ‘scam’ or a ‘Ponzi scheme’,” claiming he spent “hundreds of hours” and untold amounts of money to make sure that everything was “legal” in the U.S.
Regulators in U.S. states and Canadian provinces began zoning in on USI-Tech in late 2017 and early 2018, the indictment states, issuing cease and desist orders against the company, which soon shut down.
Prosecutors said Jicha sent an email to investors on Jan. 8, 2018, blaming them for the company’s closure, but claimed later that month that they could resume marketing the products and, in March, stating that the company would repay investors through a “BTC 2.0 Package.”
But investors were never able to withdraw their money, according to the indictment, and Jicha began ghosting them. Prosecutors said $94 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether cryptocurrencies would end up in an account controlled by Jicha.
Federal court dockets don’t list any upcoming court hearings in New York federal court as of Wednesday morning.
German national Horst Jicha falsely promised big returns to US investors, federal prosecutors allege
https://www.local10.com/news/local/...rypto-ponzi-scheme-arrested-in-south-florida/
A man arrested in Broward County just before Christmas is accused in federal court of being one of the masterminds behind a cryptocurrency “Ponzi scheme,” according to an indictment unsealed late Tuesday.
Horst Jicha, 64, was charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States, using manipulative or deceptive devices, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, which covers Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and Long Island.
It’s not clear what Jicha, described in the indictment as a German national who resided in Brazil and Spain, was doing in South Florida at the time of his arrest. He was booked into the Broward County jail Friday on a U.S. Marshals hold and was no longer listed in local jail records as of Wednesday morning.
According to the indictment, issued in late August, Jicha was a founder and the CEO of a company called “USI-Tech,” which was purportedly incorporated in the United Arab Emirates and claimed to make “cryptocurrency mining and trading accessible to the average retail investor through its online platform.”
The indictment also includes unnamed co-conspirators.
USI-Tech, short for “United Software Intelligence,” used a multilevel marketing sales strategy. Prosecutors allege that in 2017, Jicha and others aggressively promoted the company in the U.S., falsely promising 140% returns over 140 days on a 50-euro “BTC package.”
Cryptocurrency news website CoinCentral described the company as a “classic crypto Ponzi.”
Jicha urged investors to buy multiple packages to compound their returns, according to the indictment.
According to prosecutors, the multilevel marketing aspect of the company allowed Jicha to distance himself from any false claims investors may have made as they tried to market the product to others and avoid the legal responsibility that comes with marketing investment products.
Authorities allege that Jicha assured investors at an event at a casino in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania that USI-Tech was “not a ‘scam’ or a ‘Ponzi scheme’,” claiming he spent “hundreds of hours” and untold amounts of money to make sure that everything was “legal” in the U.S.
Regulators in U.S. states and Canadian provinces began zoning in on USI-Tech in late 2017 and early 2018, the indictment states, issuing cease and desist orders against the company, which soon shut down.
Prosecutors said Jicha sent an email to investors on Jan. 8, 2018, blaming them for the company’s closure, but claimed later that month that they could resume marketing the products and, in March, stating that the company would repay investors through a “BTC 2.0 Package.”
But investors were never able to withdraw their money, according to the indictment, and Jicha began ghosting them. Prosecutors said $94 million worth of Bitcoin and Ether cryptocurrencies would end up in an account controlled by Jicha.
Federal court dockets don’t list any upcoming court hearings in New York federal court as of Wednesday morning.
"where reality ends and imagination begins."
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...-not-exist-probe-finds-no-record-of-identity/
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...-not-exist-probe-finds-no-record-of-identity/
Crypto hedge fund CEO may not exist; probe finds no record of identity
HyperVerse's collapse caused an estimated $1.3 billion in customer losses.
ASHLEY BELANGER - 1/3/2024, 2:55 PM
Enlarge / A still from a HyperVerse video featuring CEO Steven Reece Lewis.
@cryptotech607 | YouTube
For years, rumors spread on social media that Steven Reece Lewis, the chief executive officer of a now-shuttered cryptocurrency hedge fund called HyperVerse, was a "fake person" who "doesn't exist." After its investigation, The Guardian has confirmed that no organization cited on his resume "can find any record of him."
According to The Guardian, Reece Lewis's qualifications all appear to be falsified in an effort to woo investors to sink money into HyperVerse. After HyperVerse collapsed, accused of operating as a pyramid scheme, the company suspended withdrawals. According to blockchain analysts, Chainalysis consumer losses in 2022 were estimated to exceed $1.3 billion. Thousands of consumers lost millions, The Guardian reported.
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In a December 2021 video, Reece Lewis was introduced as CEO and touted for making big moves before joining HyperVerse. He supposedly went from working at Goldman Sachs to selling a web development company to Adobe before launching his own IT startup.
Digging into his academic history, The Guardian found that neither of the universities that Reece Lewis allegedly attended— the University of Leeds and the University of Cambridge—had a record of him in their databases.
His career background appeared similarly suspicious. Adobe "has no record of any acquisition of a company owned by a Steven Reece Lewis in any of its public SEC filings," and "Goldman Sachs could find no record of Reece Lewis having worked for the company," The Guardian reported.
Fanning out their search, The Guardian uncovered no LinkedIn account for Reece Lewis "or any Internet presence other than HyperVerse promotional material." It appeared, too, that Reece Lewis' Twitter account was created just a month before the 2021 video launched.
Celebrities and influencers, including Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, endorsed Reece Lewis as a strong leader for the HyperVerse. Reece Lewis' company offered a bold vision that was supposed to compete with Facebook's Metaverse by creating a "new frontier of a galactic universe" and bringing "to life a complete virtual world,” Reece Lewis' promo promised. Wozniak said in a video that he supported "Steven," proclaiming, "I can’t wait for the HyperVerse.”
attempted to raise a red flag, noting that all three of the celebrities (Wozniak, Chuck Norris, and Lance Bass) who endorsed Reece Lewis declined to confirm ever knowing him.
"I suspect that he’s a figment of someone’s imagination, created to give a false sense of security to this sham," Penman wrote. "I can find no record of such a person other than a Twitter account started last year, and HyperVerse has refused to answer my questions about him or even give me an email address so that I can put questions to him directly."
The influencers, as well as HyperVerse leaders like Sam Lee and Ryan Xu, remain silent on Reece Lewis' identity today. None of the famous figures has ever confirmed that they've met or spoken to Reece Lewis, the Guardian reported, suggesting that it was possible that all three may have been hired to do the marketing videos through Cameo. Penman suggested in 2022 that the influencers were likely "innocently misled" when agreeing to endorse HyperVerse.
Perhaps more glaringly, however, Lee did not respond to The Guardian's questions about Reece Lewis. Instead, Lee disputed The Guardian's alleged "misstatements" about Lee's involvement as the alleged founder of HyperVerse and claimed that “people on the Internet" continue to "make things up.”
One of the earliest reports alleging that Reece Lewis was not real appeared on Reddit two years ago. A user called "roamingandy" criticized Xu for disappearing and wrote that HyperVerse's "new CEO Steven Reece Lewis, touted as a business expert, doesn't exist outside of one video created by HyperVerse. He has no LinkedIn, no Twitter, no mention of him on the board of any previous companies."
After concluding its investigation, The Guardian agreed that "Reece Lewis’s identity could not be verified."
On his only known social media account, Reece Lewis stopped tweeting in June 2022, around when HyperVerse was suspending customer withdrawals. While his identity remains in question, his pinned tweet has a link to a promo video for the HyperVerse, with a caption that reads, "where reality ends and imagination begins."
Wallet security startup founder scammed out of $125,000
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=bill-lou-scammed
Bill Lou, the co-founder of a cryptocurrency wallet that claims to "revolutionize wallet security", was scammed out of 52 stETH (~$125,000) when he clicked a link promising an for a project. However, he had fallen for a phishing link that was prominently placed in Google search results, mimicking a real project but draining users' wallets when they authorized the transaction.
"I just got scammed out of $125k of stEth while trying to claim the $LFG airdrop. And I'm a fking founder of a wallet startup that's trying to improve wallet security..." wrote Lou on Twitter. "This is the first time I've been scammed. I always read about others but you never think it could happen to you..." he wrote.
If the founder of a wallet security project can't avoid scams in the crypto world, what hope do the rest of us have?
https://web3isgoinggreat.com/?id=bill-lou-scammed
Bill Lou, the co-founder of a cryptocurrency wallet that claims to "revolutionize wallet security", was scammed out of 52 stETH (~$125,000) when he clicked a link promising an for a project. However, he had fallen for a phishing link that was prominently placed in Google search results, mimicking a real project but draining users' wallets when they authorized the transaction.
"I just got scammed out of $125k of stEth while trying to claim the $LFG airdrop. And I'm a fking founder of a wallet startup that's trying to improve wallet security..." wrote Lou on Twitter. "This is the first time I've been scammed. I always read about others but you never think it could happen to you..." he wrote.
If the founder of a wallet security project can't avoid scams in the crypto world, what hope do the rest of us have?
Jesus Christ. I get these fake airdrop emails every fucking day. It's fucking FAKE! I've never had to click on a link to get my airdrops because there are snap-shots already taken in the past FOR the airdrops!