Fraudulent Bitcoin trading in Austria: During intensive joint investigations by the economic and corruption public prosecutor's office, employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Lower Austria State Criminal Police Office, two defendants aged 58 and 81 were identified and convicted at the Vienna Regional Court.

13 million euros in damage caused by a pyramid scheme – two accused convicted

On November 19, 2019, an anonymous whistleblower reported serious commercial fraud to the WKStA via the justice system's anonymous whistleblower system, or BKMS system for short. For the time being, unknown perpetrators are said to have enticed the victims to invest and invest amounts of money or Bitcoins by untruthfully promising high returns and false pretenses. The invested capital is said to have been made available to professional “traders” for trading on crypto exchanges. In addition, investors in a pyramid scheme were promised a multi-stage brokerage commission if they carried out successful brokerages among friends.

Extensive investigations

After the complaint was filed, the criminal police were commissioned by the public prosecutor to investigate the facts of the case. The employees of the Lower Austria State Criminal Police Office, fraud investigation area, carried out the first surveys. Due to the crime scene on the Internet, the complexity and the associated effort, further case processing was carried out under the direction of the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office together with employees of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Economic Investigations Department.

> All articles on the topic of Bitcoin fraud can be found HERE

In addition to economic investigators, asset protection, analysts and crypto experts from the BK, the Cybercrime Competence Center and international authorities in Germany, Switzerland and Bulgaria were involved in the police investigation.
In the comprehensive and meticulous investigation, in 2019, a 53-year-old from the Baden district and a 77-year-old from the Gmunden district, who were the son and his father, were identified as the accused.

In total, over 100 victims, mainly from the DACH region, but also other EU countries, were identified

The two men are said to have acted over a period from January 2018 to mid-2019 via the “CMC – Crypto Market Consulting” sales platform and from December 2018 to mid-2020 via the “Minerva Trading Bot” platform and caused damage amounting to 13 million euros have. In total, over 100 victims, mainly from the DACH region, but also other EU countries, were identified. Eight other people were also identified who were said to have been involved in the pyramid scheme. Extensive investigations are still being carried out here.

Arrested by investigators

Based on a European arrest warrant, the now 58-year-old was arrested in Bulgaria on October 21, 2021 through the cooperation of the Federal Criminal Police Office's investigators with the Bulgarian authorities and was transferred to Austria to the Vienna Josefstadt prison in November 2021. The 81-year-old was released on the orders of the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office. The two men confessed during their interviews.

At the hearing at the Vienna Regional Court on December 14, 2022, the 58-year-old was sentenced to four and a half years unconditionally and the 81-year-old was sentenced to 30 months, 20 of which were conditional.

This successful investigation is ultimately due to the excellent and smooth cooperation between the criminal police and the economic and corruption prosecutor's office.

Source: Federal Criminal Police Office


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