More than 10,000 investors reportedly fell victim to a Bitcoin scam in Austria. The Austrian authorities are now turning to Interpol for the search for suspects. Thus, the search is to be extended to the whole of Europe and the fraudsters are caught.
According to the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, the incident is “one of the biggest crime cases related to Bitcoin” that has happened in Europe so far. This refers to the fraud scandal surrounding the multi-level marketing system Optioment, based in Vienna. More than 10,000 people have been wrongly invested in the system, which has now been punished with the loss of money invested.
Overall, the amount of damage should amount to up to 12,000 Bitcoin – that would correspond to the current state, a value of about 100 million euros. The operators of Optioment had made potential investors with promising returns a quick expansion of their portfolio; up to 4% per week had been in the meantime in the room. In November of last year, however, the spectacle came to a sudden end and the fraud collapsed like a house of cards.
In January, the Austrian Financial Market Authority Optioment filed with the prosecutor for fraud and pyramid play to the ad. Since then, the suspects are being searched for. After the Austrian police were initially charged with the criminal investigation, the prosecution has now switched to Interpol. So now throughout Europe for victims to be sought, hoping to pick up a trail of suspects.
In addition to Austrians, who account for the largest part of fraud victims, Poland, Germans, Romanians and Turks are among the investors who have lost much in the course of the fraud. The Financial Market Authority is currently looking for a Danish and a Latvian accomplice of the Austrian swindler gang.
