Massive global cryptocurrency fraud busted in Mallorca

The organisation is alleged to have swindled more than 100 million euros out of more than 3,000 people around the world, one hundred of them located in Spain.

The Guardia Civil reported on Monday that operation ‘Mandoa’ was carried out in the Basque Country and the Balearics and that several charges have also been made in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia and Israel, the final destinations for the money.

The investigation was initiated following a complaint from a person in the province of Álava who claimed to have been the victim of a scam involving investments in cryptocurrencies. The recipient of these investments was a company located in Palma that made transfers to countries outside the European Union.

The Guardia Civil were able to confirm that members of the organisation recruited potential clients through aggressive marketing strategies on well-known websites and with telephone calls, advertisements in newspapers or SMS, in which they promised them high returns without risk.

Once the contract was formalised with the victim for investments between 250 and 1,000 euros in these non-existent cryptocurrencies, the organisation provided them with access to a website where they could consult the profits of their investment with fake graphs that gave a legal appearance and generated the confidence of the victims.

The investors received constant calls in which the false brokers informed them of the enormous profits and encouraged them to continue with the non-existent investments But when the victim tried to recover the investment or the profits obtained, these false brokers asked for more money with excuses such as the payment of taxes or the closing of annual balance sheets.