Serbian Man Got Extradited To The US Over $70M BTC Scam

A Serbian man named Antonije Stojilkovic and his co-conspirators defrauded crypto investors out of $70 million and he got extradited to the US so let’s read more in today’s bitcoin scam news.

The Serbian man and his partners defrauded crypto investors out of more than $70 million and he is now extradited to Northern Texas where he targeted several victims with the scam spanning over several continents as per the indictment.  The US Department of Justice announced back on Friday that Serbia extradited Antonije Stojilkovic to the US to face charges over conspiracy to commit fraud as well as money laundering. Stojilkovic and his partners are accused of defrauding crypto investors out of $70 million in a worldwide scam that targeted investors worldwide and the scammers were based in their homes in Serbia and laundered money via 20 different trading platforms.

A Serbian man has been extradited from Serbia to the United States to face allegations that he and others duped investors out of more than $70 million.https://t.co/HqaDZiHgus

— US Attorney N. Texas (@NDTXnews) February 5, 2021

The platforms operate under the names of Bancde Options, Start Options, Dragon Mining, Options Rider, BTC Mining Factor, and Trinity Mining. Through these platforms, the scammers advertised binary options and crypto mining services to unwitting investors across the world. The acting US Attorney Perak Shah said:

 “This $70 million scam spanned several continents, targeting American citizens and foreigners alike. We are proud to bring Mr. Stojilkovic to Dallas to face justice in an American courtroom. The U.S. Department of Justice will not relent in our fight against cybercrime.”

The DOJ alleged that Stojilkovic and his partners falsely advertised their binary options services as the leading service in binary options which offered an “average payout of 80 percent and promised 20 percent refunds on every lost trade.” In what should have raised the alarm bells, the crypto mining platforms promised that the investors will purchase BTC at half the price thanks to their 24/7 mining operations.

The DoJ said that the group displayed fake figures on their scam investment platforms and fabricated returns on investments and by generating a series of fake wire receipts and fraudulent withdrawal history logs as the scammers made investors think a legitimate activity was in full swing. To make their online presence convincing, Stojilkovic catfished investors and created fake profiles with mostly female names and profile pictures, and even used fake identities during video conference calls with potential investors.