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Police raided a number of places round Europe late final week, arresting 9 suspects in a four-year hashish Ponzi scheme that reportedly netted the scammers €645 million ($604 million).
Europol, the cooperative EU legislation enforcement company, mentioned police in Germany, Italy, Latvia and Spain had been concerned in raids towards the operators of Juicy Fields, a fintech firm that hosted a crowdsourcing platform that promoted faux investments in “e-growing” or “per plant” shares of hashish crops.
One other suspect was arrested in a raid within the Dominican Republic, and the British Nationwide Crime Company additionally introduced the arrest of a “senior employees member” of the rip-off within the UK who’s being extradited to Germany.
Following ‘breadcrumbs’
“After painstakingly piecing collectively breadcrumbs of digital proof, investigators had drawn up a joint intelligence image that allowed police forces throughout Europe to provoke this wave of arrests,” Europol mentioned.
Police seized money, autos, artwork, and numerous luxurious objects within the raids.
Europol mentioned “JuicyFields” was an elaborate on-line pyramid scheme that enticed prospects to speculate as little as €50 to purchase a hashish plant on-line. The rip-off claimed to hyperlink up buyers with medical hashish producers, promising annual returns of 100% or extra, in line with Europol.
Preliminary buyers of €50/$53 had been paid out double their funding, which motivated them to speculate extra, Europol mentioned. “Many buyers would increase the stakes and pay in a whole lot, hundreds, or in lots of circumstances even tens of hundreds of euros,” in line with the company.
‘Feigned credibility’
“The platform feigned credibility because it was not solely represented within the digital world, however upheld the picture of a reliable authorized enterprise construction with bodily workplaces, employees and illustration at hashish business occasions,” Europol mentioned.
Precise damages might be “considerably larger” than the preliminary estimate of €645 million, in line with Europol, which mentioned as many as 180,000 buyers world wide had been duped by the scheme.
The rip-off’s backers abruptly eliminated firm profiles from social media networks and stopped customers from logging in to their accounts in July 2022, freezing money withdrawals.
VIDEO: A 2022 on-line assembly at Juicy Fields
Lawsuits fueled probe
Widespread studies to police and associated lawsuits introduced by Swedish lawyer Lars Olofsson triggered Europol to conduct the advanced investigation involving numerous European international locations and businesses.
In late 2022, Olofsson mentioned he had recognized as many as 170 people, banks and corporations with connections to the “Juicy Fields” fraud, and estimated losses as excessive as $2.5 billion.
The lawyer later initiated a lawsuit on behalf of practically 800 plaintiffs from 50 international locations towards banks, attorneys and several other social and information media shops that he mentioned helped facilitate investments into Juicy Fields. His claims addressed 70 people, 60 banks, and 40 firms, together with main social media and information platforms Fb, Instagram, Forbes, Google, CNN, and YouTube.
Firms and people based mostly in Cyprus, Germany, Netherlands, and Switzerland performed roles within the improvement of Juicy Fields, in line with the lawyer.
Fb’s function in rip-off
Swedish lawyer Lars Olofsson recognized many people, banks and corporations that contributed to the rip-off.
Olofsson filed a class-action lawsuit towards Fb Sweden AB in Stockholm District Court docket late final month wherein he’s representing 514 victims he mentioned had been deceived by Juicy Fields advertisements printed on Fb.
“Our proof clearly proves that Fb, regardless of repeated guarantees, and written dedication of the identical, doesn’t have a system in place to forestall fraudulent advertisements from being printed throughout its ecosystem,” Olofsson mentioned.
“With this lawsuit, I’m demanding that Fb take accountability for the truth that fraudulent advertisements appeared on the platform and additional that they weren’t eliminated when Fb customers (and my shoppers) reported them as fraudulent advertisements to the corporate,” Olofsson mentioned.
Olofsson is in search of damages totaling $23 million (€21 million) misplaced by his shoppers on account of ads that appeared on the social media platform.
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