China arrested key PlusToken suspects

27 organizers from the main team of the Ponzi scheme were arrested.

Chinese authorities have arrested more than 109 people.related to the infamous PlusToken scam.

PlusToken Ponzi scheme launched in 2018defrauded over 2 million people for 40 billion yuan (about $ 3 billion in BTC and ETC). Although the reach of the pyramid scheme was global, a significant portion of the defrauded investors were Chinese citizens.

Claiming to be supported by the South Koreanteam made up of former Google and Samsung employees, the fraudulent scheme has severely impacted the cryptocurrency's reputation in China and given authorities ample reason to clamp down on the growing sector. 

In August 2019, six people associated withPlusToken were arrested and extradited to China from Vanuatu, the alleged operational center of the scammers. The Chinese authorities said the arrested were not the ringleaders and the main culprits are still at large.

After almost 12 months, as a result of actions,undertaken by the Ministry of Public Security, all 27 of PlusToken's core team were arrested, and the previously arrested 82 persons involved in the case were named “key” participants in the process.

This is the first time that the Chinese policerolled back the major international Ponzi scheme that used bitcoin. Many experts believed that the PlusToken pyramid scheme was responsible for the Bitcoin rally in 2019. The scammers did not stop their activities and after a short break in February of this year, the movement of $ 117 million in bitcoin from PlusToken addresses was noticed.

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