• Two indictments for crypto-asset fraud and money laundering took place on Thursday, the Bordeaux prosecutor's office announced.

  • The suspects are believed to have misappropriated digital assets by impersonating wealthy investors.

  • Investigations are continuing to identify the accomplices and identify other victims of these acts.

Virtual currency and very real scams.

Coordinated arrest and search operations in the Paris region, Megève and Cannes took place on December 6, targeting organized gang fraud and money laundering.

After the placement in police custody of two suspects, Frédérique Porterie, the prosecutor of Bordeaux, announces in a press release this Friday that they were indicted Thursday by an investigating judge of the specialized interregional jurisdiction (JIRS) of Bordeaux and remanded in custody.



Victims robbed in exchange for counterfeit notes

They would have posed as wealthy investors, acting in particular under the false identities of Philippe Pictet, Alexander Karlstein, or Richard Von Stein to divert crypto-assets (bitcoins, ethereums, USDC).

They persuaded their victims of all nationalities to find them in a hotel, located outside their country of residence.

“During the date, the victims transferred crypto-assets in exchange for a suitcase of counterfeit notes or to digital wallets whose scammers obtained the private key or recovery code by manipulating the victim's phone, to then dispose of the funds as they wish, ”explains the press release.

The first victims contacted in July 2019 lost the equivalent of more than one million euros in cypto-assets in Milan and new facts were perpetrated in Paris and Milan during the year 2022 for damage equivalent to 500,000 euros .

58,000 euros in cash, Porsche, luxury watch…

After divestiture at the end of 2021 of the Bergerac public prosecutor's office seized of a first complaint, the Bordeaux JIRS public prosecutor's office issued a European investigation decision intended for Italy in order to launch the investigation.

“The technical investigations of the Bordeaux research section and the monitoring of the blockchain (public register of crypto-asset transactions) also made it possible to identify people responsible for laundering the funds thus diverted”, adds the prosecutor.

Searches of the suspects' homes, carried out in coordination with JIRS Paris and the Central Office for the Suppression of Serious Financial Crime, led to the seizure of 58,000 euros in cash, two Porsche vehicles, a Bentley car, a luxury estimated at 50,000 euros, the equivalent of 280,000 euros in crypto-assets (which were transferred to an account of the Agency for the Management and Recovery of Seized and Confiscated Assets) and false documents related to the nature of the charges .

Investigations are continuing to identify the accomplices and identify other victims of these acts.


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  • Miscellaneous facts

  • Bordeaux

  • Gironde

  • Aquitaine

  • walking sticks

  • Paca

  • parquet

  • Milano

  • blockchain

  • Cryptocurrency

  • Bitcoin