police shut down fraudulent crypto platform and arrest its leader

Source: Iliya Mitskavets / Adobe

In Kazakhstan, law enforcement claims to have shut down a crypto exchange platform suspected of being fraudulent, while its alleged leader has just been apprehended. According to the local media Nur.KZ, the country’s Ministry of the Interior announced that a man aged 23 years had actually been remanded in custody.

At the moment, we do not yet have a large amount of information about this person’s identity. The only details that have been communicated relate to his year of birth, viz 1999and the fact that his name begins with the letter L.

Authorities said the alleged perpetrator was suspected of intentionally deceiving residents of the city of Almaty through a fake crypto trading platform. An undetermined number of residents met with Auezov district police officers to make a statement about this.

According to them, the suspect, also a resident of Almaty, allowed them to raise money using his crypto platform. However, at the time they tried to withdraw their money from the platform, they were reportedly unable to do so.

The police believe that L simply had no intention of returning the money to its rightful owners from the start. Furthermore, it is stated that the fake trading platform allegedly reaped the least $7,000 various investments from eleven people. However, this sum could be much more important according to the local authorities.

In order to establish the exact amount, the police are currently conducting further investigations. Note that according to the Act on Kazakhstanis large-scale financial fraud covered by prison terms of up to 7 years as well as confiscation of stolen property.

In addition, it is important to clarify that persons convicted in this type of case may no longer be allowed to practice certain professions for a period of up to 6 years after the facts.

Is crypto fraud on the rise in Kazakhstan?

Last month, local police forces warned the public about an increase in crypto-related scams.

According to the InAlmaty media, the police said that the increase in electronic means of payment has resulted in a significant increase in scams and scams via cryptocurrencies. In this connection, they announce:

“Do not invest in suspicious projects that describe themselves as unusual and promise gigantic dividends on the condition of investing in cryptocurrencies.”

Nevertheless, the country remains a rather special place for the entire ecosystem because it is a central point for the cryptomining industry. A few years ago, the government even favored players in this industry thanks to a favorable tax policy.

A graph showing the distribution of Bitcoin mining hashrate from September 2019 to January 2022, by country.
Source: Statistics

Last month, it was revealed that players in the cryptomining industry paid the equivalent of 7 million dollars for the year 2022 in Kazakhstan.

Leave a Comment