Andreas Szakacs, the co-founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency and forex platform OmegaPro, was arrested in Turkey last month amid accusations of orchestrating a staggering $4 billion Ponzi scheme.
According to local Turkish media reports on August 22, Szakacs defrauded investors under the now-adopted name Emre Avci from Sweden.
He promised investors returns of enormous magnitude through OmegaPro’s “automated trading” algorithm. After pooling the money, the accounts of investors who fell victim to the scam were closed.
The aforementioned arrest was done after a tip-off that was received on June 28 from an anonymous informant, corroborated by a Dutch national named Abdul Mohaghegh. According to Mohaghegh, he represents 3,000 investors who lost a collective $103 million in the OmegaPro scam.
OmegaPro was headquartered in Dubai and established in 2019 with promises of returns on its investment products that would run as high as 300%. Customers made small, quick gains before demands for more investments and their eventual account locking.
The firm began closing accounts on November 7, 2022. By November 22, withdrawals were halted—just about the time of the FTX collapse.
Regulatory warnings over OmegaPro had gone out in several countries, including France, Belgium, Spain, and Peru. Targeting mainly investors outside the U.S., the platform did issue some regulatory warnings over OmegaPro.
The Turkish authorities have taken away computers, mobile devices, and 32 crypto cold wallets from Szakacs.
Szakacs did not give access to the wallets, after which the police located transactions in excess of $160 million.
According to investigators, there is a link between the funds of OmegaPro and the infamous crypto-scheme OneCoin, which scammed investors out of $4 billion.
For context, OneCoin was outed as a scam in 2015, which had been ongoing since the previous year. Criminal prosecution has hit high-profile members, including associates of founder Ruja Ignatova.
Recently, the U.S. Department of State raised its reward for information leading to her arrest from $250,000 to $5 million.
Currently, along with the development of this case, every eye in the global crypto community is watching and waiting in hopes of justice for the victims of these massive fraud schemes.
