UK Court Sentences Crypto Scammers to More than Six Years in Jail
Courts in the UK have sentenced two scam artists facing charges for running fraudulent crypto scams. The courts have issued a conviction verdict for the scammers for defrauding retail investors and fooling them with fake ideas of high returns.
The wanted criminals in the matter namely Ross Jay and Michael Freckleton are now sentenced to 6 years of jail time. The verdict has been issued by the Southwark Crown Court. The scam dates back to 2015 involving a non-existent cryptocurrency named Telecoin.
Both the scammers were offering the investment opportunity to investors to bag their savings. Jay and Freckleton ran a crypto scam that emulated fake sales of Telecoin shares to their targeted crypto investors.
London police have reported in their investigation notes that the scammers approached potential investors to fool them into investing in the fake cryptocurrency. Scammers were running a company named Digi Ex.
Law enforcement agencies in the UK were able to apprehend the crypto scammers responsible for running massive crypto swindles from 2015 to 2017. Reports have revealed that the scammers managed to collect around 509,599 euro from Digi Ex accounts. As per investigators, around 81% of the amount was sent by entrapped investors.
The law enforcement agents have reported that the scammers were engaged in the misappropriation of funds for personal financing while failing to give their clients valuable investment advice.
In 2015, the crypto market was still in its green years. Therefore, most investors bought the Telecoin scam with generalized agreeableness. Around that time, the crypto market was undergoing positive gains and the enthusiasm among investors prevented them from performing their due diligence before investing in Telecoin.
Rather than using the siphoned amount estimated to be around 635,000 euros, the scammers drew massive salaries for themselves and their employees. The total salary amount drawn by the con artist totaled at 139K euros. In addition, the scammers also drew a hefty sum from the Digi Ex business account amounting to 145K euros.
London Police to Investigate Illegal Crypto Activities
In addition to the aforementioned crypto scam, the police department of London has been investigating various fraudulent projects. The law enforcement agency has also raised questions over the sudden surge in the number of crypto ATMs surging throughout Britain.
The police have maintained that criminal activity surrounding crypto markets has continued to increase. The federal agency has also talked about the associated risks that the region faces in the wake of the short-term rise around crypto adoption.
The police have maintained with crypto ATMs around and about, investors are less likely to invest without conducting due diligence. Therefore, the police have alerted the citizens regarding the increased threat of crypto scams and the increase in fraudulent activity surges.
Meanwhile, US SEC chief Gary Gensler has continued to maintain a negative stance towards the crypto sector calling it filled with scams and frauds. During a recent interview, the head of the financial regulator claimed that issuing crypto regulations has become a headache for SEC and offers protection to investors against any foul play.
Gensler has talked about the dangers surrounding the speculative nature of cryptocurrencies. He is particularly perturbed about the verdict of the XRP case that has exempted XRP as an unregistered security in secondary markets. He has recently singled out commingled funds and market makers in the crypto sector.
