Troubled fintech company Wirecard, which powers many of the crypto debit cards on the market, has reportedly filed to open insolvency proceedings. As reported by Wall Street Journal and others, Wirecard filed an application with the Munich district court to begin preparing for insolvency resolution procedures. The company cited its “impending insolvency and over-indebtedness” as motivation for the filing, alluding to the $2.1 billion of its balance sheet that went missing. Events unfolded quickly for Wirecard since discovering that 32% of its balance sheet never existed. The company quickly became leaderless as the founding CEO and other top executives resigned, …

A judge has granted a motion from the U.S. attorney’s office to pause the SEC’s action against Edit Pardo and Boaz Manor for their involvement in the alleged $30 million crypto investment scam CG Blockchain. United States District Judge Stanley Chesler cited a parallel criminal investigation into Pardo and Manor in granting the motion to stay the Security and Exchange Commission's action, reasoning that halting the suit until the conclusion of the criminal proceedings “would best serve the interests of justice”. "A stay would strike the proper balance between the competing interest of allowing the parties to pursue civil litigation …

Funds from the infamous Chinese-based PlusToken ponzi scheme are moving once again, but they’re being blocked by Ethereum’s block congestion. According to Whale Alert, funds from a known PlusToken Ether (ETH) stash were seen moving to a fresh address. The fraudsters transferred 789,500 ETH, worth about $186 million, in what appears to be an effort to launder their funds. The incoming wallet has since signed more than 50 transactions to split the funds across dozens of wallets, but only one of those appears to have been confirmed. The remaining transactions have been hanging in the mempool for more than 30 …

The former chief executive officer of Wirecard, a German fintech company, has been detained by Munich police after being charged with misrepresenting the company’s balances. As reported by Reuters and many others, Markus Braun, who led the company for the better part of two decades, has been arrested by police in Munich, Germany. According to a statement issued by the prosecutor’s office, he is accused of having conspired to inflate assets and total revenue through false transactions with “third-party acquirers.” This was done to make the company appear more attractive to investors, the prosecutors say. The misrepresented funds in question, …

A wallet associated with alleged crypto Ponzi scheme PlusToken has moved 26,316,339 EOS tokens (worth over $67 million as of press time) to an anonymous crypto wallet created less than 24 hours ago. The transaction was spotted by tracking service Whale Alert earlier today. PlusToken is believed to be one of the largest scams in the cryptocurrency history, as it reportedly held almost $3 billion worth of assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and EOS when it went bust in June last year. Launched in May 2018, PlusToken acted as a crypto wallet service and investment program promising high monthly …

Australians filed 1,810 reports of cryptocurrency-related scams in 2019, collectively totaling more than $21.6 million AU ($14.9 million USD). According to a study by Scamwatch, an arm of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, younger Australians aged 25 to 34 were those most heavily affected by crypto investment scams. According to the report: “Cloud mining farms became a common adaptation of this type of scam. Most were Ponzi schemes, with no real cryptocurrency involved.” It goes on to characterize cloud crypto mining as an “an incredibly resource-intensive activity” that relies on powerful computing systems to mine a coin. This is …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has halted activity of another alleged cryptocurrency-related scam stealing millions of dollars from investors. According to a SEC’s announcement on June 19, the authority has been granted a temporary restraining order and asset freeze against two Pennsylvania-based brothers allegedly running three crypto scam schemes. According to the SEC, Sean Hvizdzak and Shane Hvizdzak lied about their crypto fund performance by fabricating financial statements, instead redirecting investor funds to their own accounts with banks as well as crypto exchanges. As ruled by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Hvizdzaks, …

The hottest Ethereum topic in June so far has been mysterious transactions that involved millions of dollars being paid to transfer small-to-medium amounts of Ether (ETH) — an activity which normally doesn’t cost more than a few dozen cents. Researchers have managed to track down the potential victim — a suspicious South Korean crypto exchange — which either experienced a major bug or was threatened by hackers in a very sophisticated way. So what are the main theories behind what happened, and will these millions of dollars be returned to their owner after all? What happened? A chain of Ether …

In August 2010, a bug in the Bitcoin network that allowed large transactions to be added to the ledger without proper verification was identified by a hacker. The hacker generated and siphoned 184 billion Bitcoin (BTC) into three separate accounts. Fortunately, the bug was quickly identified and erased from the blockchain by developers. The existence of blockchain technology would indeed have been threatened if the hacker was successful. Since the emergence of blockchain technology, numerous industries have adapted the technology to store and transfer chunks of data. The technology boasted of an iron-clad defense system that supposedly could not be …

Major fintech company Wirecard, which issues Crypto.com’s debit cards, has fallen into controversy as some of its employees appear to have defrauded the company. As reported by the Financial Times on June 18, auditors from Big Four accounting company EY “could not confirm the existence of €1.9bn in cash,” or about $2.1 billion. According to a statement from the company, a trustee of Wirecard’s bank accounts attempted to deceive the auditor and falsely indicate the existence of the cash balance. The company’s stock price plummeted by almost 50% on Thursday after the issue came to light. According to earlier reporting …

The last two years have witnessed a hefty uptick in crypto-centric ransomware attacks. Not only are bad actors becoming more refined, but they are facilitating access to other, less sophisticated ones. According to experts, crypto crime of this nature has been especially prevalent amid the coronavirus pandemic. But how does it all connect, and what can the industry do to stamp it out? As with all groups, the cryptocurrency sector has its portion of bad apples. Since 2018, ransomware attacks worldwide have increased by 200%. To make matters worse, the software required to carry out such attacks is widely available …

Russ Albert Medlin — co-founder of alleged crypto Ponzi scheme BitClub — was arrested in South Jakarta under accusation of sexual assault on minors. Local news outlet Jakarta Globe reported on June 16 that local law enforcement arrested Medlin on Monday. Jakarta Police chief Yusri Yunus explained that law enforcement received “tip-offs from the public that underage women were often seen” at his residence. When surveilling the place where he was residing, the police saw three teenagers leave his house: “The officers intercepted and questioned three underage women, around 15 to 17 years old. They admitted the owner of the …