The National Court judges the first major cryptofraude: 92 million euros scammed to 32,000 investors

An investment system with cryptocurrencies “designed to always win” through an algorithm that “never existed” and that, in reality, only “sold smoke.” It is the summary that the Judge of the National Court José Luis Calama makes of the “pyramidal business” that the Santiago Bróker Santiago Fuentes Jover and six other people launched in just 16 months – between May 2019 and September 2020 – with the money of thousands of investors. From next Monday they will sit on the bench, in what will be the first trial of the Special Court for a large -scale fraud with cryptodivisas. They are accused of crimes of aggravated fraud and criminal organization, so they are exposed to sentences of almost thirty years in jail.

The alleged victims exceed 32,000, to which an amount exceeding 92 million euros would have been scammed, according to the car that in June 2023 ended more than two years of research. The investigations began in September 2020 in an Arona Court (Tenerife), where the defendants had the office open from which they recorded some of their capture videos. Five months later, that court was inhibited in favor of the National Court, which had opened some proceedings for the same facts. The investigation ended up deriving in a macro -investigation of 7,800 folios distributed in 24 volumes and seven separate pieces: the ‘Arbistar case’.

That is the name of the platform, which offered automated systems to invest in cryptocurrencies. They managed to capture thousands of investors under the promise that they had made a robot that took benefit from the price differences between the different Exchange or cryptocurrency sale platforms. That is, that allowed to locate the Exchange in which the bitcoin (a type of cryptocurrency) were offered at a lower price for instantaneous sale at a higher price. The Exchange They work similar to a traditional exchange house, but instead of euros or dollars, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin are exchanged.

After installing that supposed automated program on your personal computer and sending cryptocurrencies to Arbistar’s electronic wallet, the client lost control over their capital and could not withdraw it in the next two months. At that time, the investor should only wait to receive the profits, which were initially encrypted around 8% and 15% monthly and that were paid on Saturdays, with the option of adding the amount to the initial investment or opting for reimbursement. The reality is that this innovative algorithm “never existed and, therefore, only smoke was sold,” underlines the car in which the magistrate proposed to sit on the bench to the seven defendants.

The investigation has revealed that what the plot allegedly did was use a part of the money obtained from investors to deliver it to other previous investors as payment of the high interest promised. That is, a simple “pyramid scam” in which older investors feed on the most recent capital entries. According to the judge, that generated in those affected “great confidence” that his investment was safe and very profitable, so many strive to invest a greater amount of money in the hope of obtaining an even greater benefit.

This strategy was also accompanied by a “carefully designed” marketing strategy, which combined the offer of this high profitability with powerful communication campaigns through various Internet channels, events in hotels and the use of the investors themselves for the collection process.

High sentence requests

The National Court Prosecutor’s Office accuses Fuentes Jover of promoting “a massive and international deception, with the commercial framework argist as a legal housing” and claims for him penalties that add up to total 29 years and 9 months in prison, as well as the aranguez lawyers, which represents 3,822 affected. The prosecutor argues that the alleged “ideologist” and “undisputed leader” of the plot acted at all times with the “preconceived intention” not to fulfill the benefits to which he had committed to the contracts signed by investors. Fuentes Jover has been in provisional prison since June 2023.

According to the prosecutor, the main defendant had the aid, among others, of Viktor Walter Frantz, a French computer engineer who is attributed to the design of the fictional computer tools that were used to warn the fraud and that is fleeing from justice. In addition, other defendants contributed a network of companies with which they tried to “hinder the tracking of the plundered funds.” The Public Ministry argues that the defendants were limited to creating a “pyramid scheme” and that any activity of criptomoned sale was never carried out. “Arbor The country.

The machinery was active until, in August 2020, the defendants perceived that the “created pyramid system had reached its zenith,” says the prosecutor. Then, they informed the investors who canceled all the activity by “falsely” by “falsely” to an error of their robot, while “they looted the entity’s accounts, through the massive detour of the existing funds towards their own personal accounts and those of their personal environment”.

“We want justice,” says an affected

During the trial, which will last for three weeks, they are scheduled to declare, in addition to the defendants, twelve ancient arbor employees, experts and police officers who investigated the platform. They will also lend more than twenty injured, among which there are profiles of all kinds.

One of them is the French Christophe M., who says he came to invest with his partner 115,000 euros in the summer of 2019. Until the bubble exploded, it was reinviring the alleged profits. “I arrived at the platform for a video through YouTube. At that time I worked in a bank and had knowledge of the cryptocurrency sector. Everything seemed very serious. At first it worked well, we could recover the profits, ”he explains in telephone conversation. But when the pyramid collapsed lost all the money invested, the “savings of a lifetime.” The situation also led him to lose friends and family who had encouraged to invest in Arbor. “We want justice,” he cries.

Among those affected is also the Jienense Manuel P., who invested around 6,000 euros. “I entered with fear, but they took me talking about this platform for a year and as I saw that they did pay the people who were entering, I launched,” he said from Zurich (Switzerland), where he works today. Arbistar broke just a month after he made his investment and did not collect anything.

Brian (fictional name) invested around 8,000 euros that he has not recovered either. “I saw that money grew until one day I tried to get money and I couldn’t. I felt cheated, although deep down I knew it was something that could happen because it is difficult for them to happen like that, ”says this event organizer and diving instructor resident in Ibiza, who says he invests in cryptocurrencies and indexed funds“ seeking retirement ”that he thinks he will not have.