China arrests 109 people behind the PlusToken scam

The Chinese government has arrested 109 people behind the PlusToken scam. PlusToken was a scam of Chinese origin that took the form of an investment program, promising monthly returns of above 10%. Chinese media announced that 27 main suspects have been arrested on suspicion of being the mastermind of the Ponzi Scheme. While further investigation led by the Ministry of Public Security led to the arrest of 82 key members of the PlusToken organization. 

The Pyramid scheme succeeded in stealing funds from more than 2 million people. According to local news, the total money embezzled is estimated to be around 40 billion Yuan or $5.7 billion. 

In the beginning of June, the scammers transferred around $187 million to ETH and $67 million to EOS as indicated by Whale Alert. 

A long investigation to dismantle a sprawling organization

This is the first time that China has cracked down on an international Ponzi scheme that used Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and EOS as a method of exchange.

Law enforcement began their investigation last year and already arrested 6 suspected members of the Ponzi scheme. However, the 109 newly arrested members fled the country by then. The report does not specify where they were apprehended.

PlusToken was launched in 2018 as a cryptocurrency portfolio management project. The criminals claimed to be backed by a South Korean team made up of former Samsung and Google employees. 

The program was massively promoted in Asia and succeeded in convincing more than 2 to 3 million people to invest. The members of PlusToken had dispersed the stolen funds in more than 6,000 wallets in order to conceal their activity. 

Some analysts believe that the PlusToken team’s money laundering attempts may have put downward pressure on the price of BTC and ETH. This arrests is good news as this would be a signal to scammers looking to swindle innocent people of their hard earned funds.