Vietnamese financial authorities have warned the public about the risks of cryptocurrency investment, as the industry is not regulated in Vietnam, local news agency Thanh Nien reported Wednesday. The Ministry of Finance of Vietnam stated, “Vietnam has not adopted any legislation related to the issuance, trading, and exchange of virtual currencies and virtual assets.” The ministry stated that digital currencies are not part of Vietnamese securities laws and that there are only two exchanges, Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange and Hanoi Stock Exchange, that are allowed to trade securities in Vietnam. To address this gap, the ministry has established a …

Austrian regulators are calling for stricter crypto laws amid a spate of elaborate investment scams involving cryptocurrency and digital assets. According to a Bloomberg report of Friday, Austria’s Financial Market Authority has revealed that more than 60% of all reported financial fraud in the country involve crypto trading products. The FMA says these crypto scammers are using social media platforms like Telegram and TikTok to advertise their fraudulent offerings to would-be victims. Commenting on the need for stricter crypto regulations to curb the menace of these fraudulent investment activities, Klaus Grubelnik, a spokesperson for the FMA remarked: “We see a …

A Manhattan federal judge has let an escrow agent walk free for deceiving a crypto investment manager about having purchased $3.25 million worth of Bitcoin on their behalf in 2018. During a hearing held over video conference on Feb. 4, U.S district Judge Edgardo Ramos ordered Volantis Market Making founder John Barry Thompson of Pennsylvania to repay the $3.25 million to New York-based investment manager, Iterative OTC, and sentenced him to three years of supervised release. Thompson pleaded guilty in October 2020. According to legal publication Law 360, Judge Ramos took into account Thompson’s lack of ill-intent and the fact …

An Australian citizen has pleaded guilty to cheating investors out of over $90 million by squandering money they invested in his New York-based cryptocurrency funds. Twenty four-year-old Stefan He Qin entered the plea to a single count of a securities fraud charge in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday, Feb. 4. According to the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the fraud occurred from 2017 to 2020 as Qin operated the fund titled Virgil Sigma. In a statement, U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Stefan He Qin drained almost all of the assets from …

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged three individuals for various cryptocurrency frauds including the 2018 initial coin offering for the Steven Seagal-promoted altcoin, Bitcoiin2Gen. A Feb. 1 SEC announcement estimates that Bitcoiin Gen founder John DeMarr, Start Options founder Kristijan Krstic, and promotor Robin Enos duped investors out of more than $11 million through two fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings from December 2017 until May 2018. The SEC alleges that Krstic and DeMarr first spruiked Start Options’ purported crypto asset mining and trading platform in December 2017 and January 2017, falsely claiming it was “the largest Bitcoin exchange …

For Jeremy Spence, also known as "Coin Signals," the news just gets worse. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has unveiled civil fraud charges against Spence for his investment scheme, which allegedly suckered investors out of over $5 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) based on false or misleading statements. As Cointelegraph reported, the Department of Justice arrested Spence earlier today on charges of wire fraud and commodities fraud that have maximum sentences of up to 30 years combined. The CFTC's civil complaint looks to return Spence's allegedly ill-gotten gains back to investors and to bar Spence from trading in commodity interest …

The crypto industry has boomed over the past 12 months. While 2019 began with a total market cap of $200 billion, the explosion in Bitcoin’s value resulted in this figure surging fivefold as 2020 began — and according to CoinMarketCap, the digital assets space was collectively worth $1 trillion at one point. However, as the crypto sector continues to grow and flourish, so too does crypto-related crime. Virtual assets worth $3.8 billion were lost to fraud in 2019. This figure rose to almost $4.9 billion in 2020. Fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism are not issues that are …

Rossen Iossifov, the convicted owner of the RG Coins crypto exchange platform, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for money laundering. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, a federal jury in Frankfort, Kentucky found the Bulgarian national guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering and money laundering back in September 2020. The guilty verdict came after only a two-week trial period. According to the United States Justice Department on Tuesday, Iossifov and other RG Coins principal actors participated in an elaborate money laundering conspiracy that defrauded at least 900 Americans to the tune of over $7 million. As part of the …

Russia’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC, could contain a number of risks related to cybersecurity and fraud, according to several local financial institutions. The Association of Russian Banks, or ARB, has released its official feedback on Russia’s digital ruble project on Jan. 13. The study included 17 ABR credit institutions in Russia accounting for 58% of the total assets of the domestic banking system. According to the report, the majority of ARB members believe that risks associated with the digital ruble are similar to those of cashless transactions powered by banking accounts and cards, as well as cryptocurrencies. The …

The problem of spreading cybercrime is becoming more acute today, and developed countries with high gross domestic product rates suffer from it to a much greater extent than developing countries. This is due to the fact that the more advanced technologies are used by society, the stronger its dependence is on digital structures. And this, in turn, creates more opportunities for cybercriminals. In 2021, the damage from cybercrime is predicted to be $6 trillion — twice as much as in 2015. Meanwhile, the terms cybercrime and cyberterrorism differ in various legal systems. Some criminologists divide these concepts; others consider them …

A Manhattan court has sentenced the operator of the fraudulent crypto investment firm Centra Tech to a year and a day in prison. Per a Tuesday announcement from the Department of Justice, Robert Farkas successfully solicited $25 million in investment during the 2017 initial coin offering boom. The ICO famously included promotion from boxer Floyd Mayweather and musician DJ Khaled, both of whom got in legal trouble for failing to disclose that they were paid for their participation. On top of the celebrity endorsements, Farkas' scheme included lies about Centra Tech's licensing as a money services business in 38 states, …

A major Bitcoin (BTC) ad scam involving unauthorised images of Australian celebrities who seemingly promoted fake investment schemes is allegedly coming from Russia, according to a new report. Fraudulent Bitcoin ads capitalizing on Australian celebrities like Dick Smith and Andrew Forrest are part of an organized global business that uses at least five addresses in Moscow, an investigation by The Guardian asserts. On Dec. 13, The Guardian published a report providing more details about a major Bitcoin ad scam that has run on news websites since at least 2018. As previously reported, the scam involved fake articles using unauthorised images …