Law enforcement officials from the Guardia Civil and Mossos d’Esquadra have apprehended a major perpetrator of a cryptocurrency scam of billions of euros that tricked hundreds of thousands of investors.
Pablo A.M., 33 years of age, was taken into custody while on board an aircraft arriving at Barcelona Airport from Romania.
The man was believed to be the head of Spanish clients in the scam. It is estimated that the scamming has impacted around 17,000 people in Spain alone.
Eurojust is coordinating an international investigation and the efforts of 15 call centers in Eastern Europe. Five arrests were made after a raid last month.
The criminal group posed as brokers who could offer investors a chance to make a lot of money with small cryptocurrency investments, as per Eurojust. Victims were encouraged to invest in websites run by the organization, including the EverFX trading platform, which Pablo A.M. was one of the top leaders.
Police tapped his phone in 2018 as part of their in-depth investigation which included interviews with EverFX directors who were backing La Liga’s Sevilla. The owner of EverFX at the time of the investigation, ICC Global Holdings Ltd registered in Cyprus, told El Pais newspaper that they had not done any market research and were unaware of it.
The company’s name has changed since then. Last year, UK authorities banned ICC trading and EverFX from operating in the country.
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