U.S., Brazil Authorities Break Up $768 Million Alleged Crypto Crime Ring

A crypto crime ring believed to have moved up to 4 billion reais ($768 million) in transactions while misleading investors about crypto products that turned out to be worthless has been dismantled by authorities in the U.S. and Brazil. “The U.S. investigation revealed that the organization allegedly deceived investors in over a dozen countries by falsely claiming that they had developed fully functioning, cutting-edge cryptocurrency-related financial products,” U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stated. U.S. And Brazil Authorities Investigate The organization has been allegedly promoting fictitious alliances and authorizations used to deceive victims into investing millions of dollars in cryptocurrency created by the suspects. Ultimately, the cryptocurrency was worthless. According to the ICE announcement, the fraud ring was run by “a 37-year-old Brazilian national and former U.S. resident.” Local media, including G1, stated that Brazilian authorities had identified Francisley Valdevino da Silva as the gang’s accused boss. Federal police in Brazil reported that the organization allegedly fooled “thousands of victims” by promising services that would yield monthly returns of up to 20% of the money spent. Brazilian federal police issued 20 search and seizure warrants as part of Operation Poyais, according to an October 6 statement. Approximately 100 police officers and Federal Reserve personnel from Brazil assisted i...