Old as the hills. What were these two people thinking? Did they really think they’d get away with it? The crypto will be put to all the sauces and will have served to all types of scams and swindles. Including the most ridiculous. Today, we tell you how two malevolent characters managed to extract more than 5 million to a group of investors by simply promising to buy bitcoins… without ever doing it!
The courts have handed down their verdict, and the sentences are in. Let’s go to Washington D.C. to find out what the court had in store for these two nickel feet.
A crypto scam, really?
As much as there are scams well-organized, well-prepared with a meticulously elaborated planBut some of these scams are pure laziness! Such is the case with our compatriots of the day, who haven’t exactly shown great imagination.
Incidentally, it’s almost unfair to include this attempted theft in the crypto category, given that crypto is anecdotal in their plan. The American media speak of a Bitcoin scambut there were never any bitcoins involved. Only people who paid for crypto they never had, and never even bought!
Here’s the story. In 2018, Randy Craig Levine and Philip Reichenthal first enticed several groups of investors to give them money to buy Bitcoin. Levine turned investors away, and Reichenthal used his status as a lawyer to create illusions and appear serious.
Indeed, according to document of justice, the latter promised to « hold the funds in his attorney escrow accounts until investors receive the bitcoin they expected to buy from Levine. ». Can you see what’s coming next?
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Ready to do anything for a handful of bitcoins
The bitcoins were never purchased, and investors never heard from the two partners again. The money was transferred to accounts managed by Levine and disappeared from circulation. But fortunately, the story doesn’t end there. In fact, it does, justice got involved and this fine team ended up in American jails after a trial in 2022. Levine received a sentence of six years while Reichenthal was sentenced to one year. sentence corresponding to the time he had spent on remand. But the financial side of the case was not yet over.
We were waiting to find out what the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the US commodities regulator, was to decide, and the answer came on July 6. They have been ordered to reimburse 5.4 million to victims and are no longer allowed to carry on business activities registered with the CFTC. A spokesperson for the institution issued the following statement about the case:
« The Commission continues to devote substantial attention and resources to eradicating fraud in the digital asset space. Unfortunately, fraud related to digital assets or cryptocurrencies has become all too common. Fraudsters often take advantage of retail customers’ fear of missing out on new asset classes to perpetrate their scams. »
It’s almost a FOMO scam if these few words are to be believed! But the connection with digital assets is a long way off, even if we understand the reasoning of the US regulator and the courts. Visit Bitcoin was just a pretext to fraud and a simple promise. Never kept. The moral of this case is: beware of individual investors and don’t trust your money to just anyone. That said, this was true before crypto.
In crypto, don’t cut corners! So, to keep your crypto assets safe, the best solution is still a personal hardware wallet. At Ledgerthere’s something for every profile and every crypto. Don’t wait to secure your capital (commercial link)!