Kiwi man has been arrested as part of an international cryptocurrency scam.
He was arrested in New Zealand following an investigation by the FBI into an organised criminal group that stole cryptocurrency valued at USD$265 million (NZD$450m).
The cryptocurrency is alleged to have been fraudulently obtained by manipulating seven victims and was subsequently laundered through multiple cryptocurrency platforms, according to police.
This cryptocurrency scam occurred between March and August 2024.
New Zealand police said in a statement “search warrants have been executed in Auckland, Wellington, and California with several people arrested, including one in New Zealand”.
A total of 13 people are facing charges including a man from Wellington who was arrested this morning by the police Financial Crime Group in Auckland. The man appeared in the Auckland District Court today and was bailed plus received interim name suppression, and he is due to reappear in the court on 3rd July.
Kiwi Edition Talks About Crypto
Here at Kiwi Edition we talk about crypto quite a bit, and even have a section that we call Crypto Corner.
To many Kiwis crypto is still seen as a new and highly volatile speculative ‘investment’ but it’s been around since 2009. The first cryptocurrency was Bitcoin which was created by an anonymous computer programmer or group of programmers known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
The reason cryptocurrency was created was a concern that traditional currencies were too reliant on the trustworthiness of banks or governments – and that’s more evident today than it was back in 2009.
In August 2010 one Bitcoin was worth USD$0.05 and today it’s worth USD$103,720 (NZD$175,786). It’s had some huge increases and has also dropped in value at times, but Bitcoin and other crypto is now being used to some degree in many investment portfolios including some KiwiSaver portfolios.
Kiwis are also starting to mine crypto and one popular way to do this is with BeepX where you can subscribe to an online mining platform to create crypto for you.
