of Bitcoin mining as the reason. And, given that the platform functioned on a yearly contract, a lot of people stood to lose money as the firm’s T&C allowed it to end contracts without making any refunds.
The latest information provided by the DoJ alleges Hashflare of not having the mining equipments it claimed to have in the first place. The press release further“When investors asked to withdraw their mining proceeds, Potapenko and Turõgin were not able to pay the mined currency as promised. Instead, they either resisted making the payments, or paid off the investors using virtual currency the defendants had purchased on the open market—not currency they had mined.
Notably, the accused were pulled up not only for their involvement in HashFlare but also Polybius, a platform that would function as a cryptocurrency bank. The accused raised nearly $25 million from investors over the promise of paying them in dividends for Polybius. However, the dividends were never delivered. And, the raised money was transferred to other bank accounts and wallets controlled solely by the accused. Potapenko and Turõgin allegedly then laundered part of these funds to shell companies to purchase nearly 75 real estate properties and luxury cars.Subscribe to get it daily in your inbox.
Question: why were the FBI going after them? They live in Estonia. Did they rip off American investors?