CoinList reportedly allowed 89 users to sign up for accounts on the platform, most of whom had stated that they were residents of Russia but provided addresses in Crimea.
CoinList reaches $1.2 million settlement with OFAC over Russian sanction violations
- "OFAC Settles with CoinList Markets LLC for $1,207,830 Related to Apparent Violations of the Ukraine-/Russia-Related Sanctions Regulations", Department of the Treasury enforcement release [archive]
Money launderers charged over $80 million crypto romance scam
- "Four Individuals Charged for Laundering Millions from Cryptocurrency Investment Scams", Department of Justice press release [archive]
Australian victims lose estimated $1.3 billion to prolific scammers' HyperVerse project
Estimates by Chainalysis suggest that victims have lost a combined $1.3 billion (with a B) to the scam thus far.
The scheme's operators Sam Lee and Zijing "Ryan" Xu were also behind Blockchain Global, a collapsed company that operated the Australian ACX crypto exchange that collapsed in 2019. The company is in liquidation, and creditor claims are expected to surpass $50 million. Although Lee and Xu were reported for investigation to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, ASIC did not take any action.
Lee has also been involved in other investment platforms, including two that are currently active: StableDao and We Are All Satoshi. Both platforms were the target of cease and desist letters from the Californian Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in September 2023, who described them both as "fraudulent pyramid and Ponzi scheme[s]".
- "Investors lose millions as crypto schemes operate unchecked in Australia", The Guardian [archive]
- "'They are so convincing': Vera Gazzard lost her life savings to HyperVerse", The Guardian [archive]
- "Crypto Scam Revenue Dropped 46% in 2022, While Blockchain Analysis Finds Links Between What Appear to be Distinct Scams", Chainalysis [archive]
- "More than $50 million owed to creditors after collapse of Blockchain Global's cryptocurrency exchange", ABC News [archive]
Crypto scammer suddenly pleads guilty in trial surrounding EXW fraud
The scam in question was a Ponzi scheme called EXW, in which the eight defendants stole at least €17.6 million (~$19.3 million) from at least 40,000 victims in late 2019 and 2020. The fraud later resurfaced under a different name. However, in court, the ex-girlfriend of the main defendant testified that the scam had actually brought in €80–100 million ($88—$110 million).
One of the defendants, who from reports seems to be the same one who just admitted his guilt in court, reportedly feigned being autistic when he was arrested by police, somehow earning himself enough time to erase the contents of his phone.
He and seven other defendants have been charged with fraud, money laundering, running a pyramid scheme, and operating a criminal organization.
- "EXW Wallet indictments, arrests & criminal trial in Austria", Behind MLM [archive]
- "EXW-Prozess: Hauptangeklagter bekennt sich schuldig", Salzburger Nachrichten (in German) [archive]
- "Angeklagter bekennt sich im Prozess um Kryptobetrug vollumfänglich schuldig", Der Standard (in German) [archive]
Blockchain chess platform Immortal Game ditches token after "heavy cheating"
"We found that by offering large amounts of cash with no limit barrier to entry, we encouraged heavy cheating on the platform and degraded the user experience for our legitimate player base who want a fair and safe place to play chess online," they wrote. Who could have guessed.
Somewhat ironically, they suggested that they may still intended to look into using web3 technology for "anti-cheat measures".
Grifter-in-chief Donald Trump hawks mugshot NFTs
Now, Trump is hawking a new set of $99 NFTs, featuring the August 2023 mugshot taken in connection to his ongoing racketeering lawsuit. Those who purchase 47 of the NFTs — amounting to $4,653 plus fees — are promised a scrap of the suit Trump wore in the mugshot and a dinner with the president-turned-fulltime criminal defendant.
The fine print, however, reserves the possibility that neither promise will come through.
Fraudsters steal more than $25 million in "AI-powered" crypto ponzi
In addition to pulling off the original scam, the fraudsters also came up with a fake investigative agency called the "Federal Crypto Reserve", where they directed victims who were seeking to recover their losses.
The scammers were charged with wire fraud, money laundering, and obstruction of justice, which carry hefty maximum prison terms.
- "Two Men Charged for Operating $25M Cryptocurrency Ponzi Scheme", Department of Justice press release [archive]
OKX DEX suffers $2.7 million hack
It appears the attacker was able to gain access to the smart contract admin key, which gave them the ability to upgrade the contracts to enable malicious functionality.
OKX announced that they would reimburse the losses, and pursue legal action against the exploiter.
KuCoin fined $22 million in New York
KuCoin has admitted to allowing New Yorkers to trade securities and commodities on the platform, and representing themselves as an "exchange" without having registered as such.
In addition to paying the fine, KuCoin has agreed to shut down all New Yorkers' accounts in the coming months and prevent residents of the state from signing up for new accounts.
Yearn Finance accidentally swaps its entire Ip-yCRVv2 treasury, asks nicely for the money back
Because there was not sufficient liquidity for such a large trade at the going price, the trade was ultimately fulfilled, but at a 63% loss. Before the trade, that quantity of tokens was priced at around $2.28 million; however, Yearn received only around $780,000 in stablecoins because of the slippage.
Yearn quickly identified the issue and embarked on a campaign to ask nicely for the counterparties in the trade to please give some of their profits back. In on-chain messages, Yearn wrote: "one of yearns multisigs made a costly mistake last night that affected a critical source of yCRVs liquidity. we identified you as having made a profit off of this and are kindly requesting that you return as much as you see reasonable to yearns main multisig: ychad.eth. sorry we have to ask this, but hope you can understand." Doesn't hurt to ask, I guess. So far, only one wallet has taken them up on the offer, returning 2 ETH (~$4,400).
- "Incident disclosure - 2023-12-11", Yearn Finance Github [archive]
- On-chain message from Yearn Finance [archive]