5 individuals have been jailed in Austria for his or her half in a $16 million pyramid scheme that duped 40,000 victims into investing in actual property and cryptocurrency and allowed the perpetrators to spend tens of 1000’s of euros on luxurious automobiles, personal jets, prostitutes, and a shark tank.
As reported by the Day by day Mail, 11 suspects from Austria, Croatia, and Italy went on trial over the course of 60 days on the Klagenfurt Regional Courtroom in what has been referred to as Austria’s biggest-ever fraud trial.
The defendants, who included the 24-year-old stepson of an unnamed celeb, have been accused of guaranteeing traders huge income in the event that they pumped their cash into property and traded in varied cryptocurrencies, together with the EXW token.
Nevertheless, they pocketed the funds as an alternative, allegedly spending huge quantities on high-end automobiles, membership nights in Dubai, property, and a shark tank.
The celeb’s stepson additionally reportedly spent €100,000 ($108,000) on prostitutes.
5 of the accused have been jailed for between 5 years and 18 months whereas one other 5 have been acquitted. The eleventh defendant was absent from court docket.
Police mentioned tackling the gang was made specifically troublesome by the ways it employed, which included transporting cash in plastic luggage, storing money in shoe packing containers, and exchanging funds by way of crypto platforms till the path was all however invisible.
Prosecutor Caroline Czedik-Eysenberg mentioned, “There were never any profitable projects” and that the schemes have been “only there to attract customers.”
One of many gang’s protection legal professionals claimed that their consumer had not supposed to commit fraud however had “invested a lot of work and planned to make profits with various assets,” earlier than changing into overwhelmed by the venture.
