5 individuals have been jailed in Austria for his or her half in a $16 million pyramid scheme that duped 40,000 victims into investing in actual property and cryptocurrency and allowed the perpetrators to spend tens of 1000’s of euros on luxurious vehicles, personal jets, prostitutes, and a shark tank.
As reported by the Every day Mail, 11 suspects from Austria, Croatia, and Italy went on trial over the course of 60 days on the Klagenfurt Regional Court docket in what has been known as Austria’s biggest-ever fraud trial.
The defendants, who included the 24-year-old stepson of an unnamed movie star, had been accused of guaranteeing traders large earnings in the event that they pumped their cash into property and traded in varied cryptocurrencies, together with the EXW token.
Nevertheless, they pocketed the funds as a substitute, allegedly spending huge quantities on high-end autos, membership nights in Dubai, property, and a shark tank.
The movie star’s stepson additionally reportedly spent €100,000 ($108,000) on prostitutes.
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5 of the accused had been jailed for between 5 years and 18 months whereas one other 5 had been acquitted. The eleventh defendant was absent from court docket.
Police stated tackling the gang was made in particular tough by the techniques it employed, which included transporting cash in plastic luggage, storing money in shoe bins, and exchanging funds through crypto platforms till the path was all however invisible.
Prosecutor Caroline Czedik-Eysenberg stated, “There were never any profitable projects” and that the schemes had been “only there to attract customers.”
One of many gang’s protection legal professionals claimed that their consumer had not meant to commit fraud however had “invested a lot of work and planned to make profits with various assets,” earlier than changing into overwhelmed by the challenge.
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