4 Cryptocurrency Fraud Schemes Focused on IRS CI Top 10 Cases

The IRS Criminal Investigation (CI) has released its Top 10 Cases of 2023, representing the most significant incidents from the previous year. CI boss Jim Lee highlighted the multi-billion dollar fraud, victims and perpetrators around the world are all for personal gain.

In a statement to CryptoPotato, Lee said that CI's investigation targeted individuals' personal information, investigated cryptocurrency-related multi-level marketing schemes, and successfully dismantled one of the largest fraud schemes in history related to renewable fuel credits. .

“When I say our team is the best at following the money trail in CI, I mean it.”

Four fraudulent investment schemes related to digital currency have been added to the list.

Bruno Block, the founder of the Oyster Pearl cryptocurrency, also known as Amir Bruno Ilmani, has been sentenced to four years in prison. Ilamani orchestrated a tax evasion scheme by misrepresenting income related to the Pearl Token. In 2017, he introduced Perl tokens, claiming to have developed the Oyster protocol for online data storage. Ilmani used proxies including friends and family to receive crypto income. In the year Despite spending heavily in 2018, such as buying a yacht, investing in a carbon fiber composites company and buying houses, he falsely reported any income to the IRS, resulting in a tax loss of nearly $5.5 million.

James Zhong, involved in the Silk Road dark web scam, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for wire fraud. In the year In 2012, he illegally obtained nearly 50,000 bitcoins from the Silk Road marketplace. For more than a decade, Zhong executed a complex scheme to steal and hide the source of Bitcoin. This was at a time when the price was about $3.4 billion. The court ordered him to forfeit all bitcoins, 80% of RE&D Investments LLC's interest, $661,900 in seized US dollars and precious metals seized from his home.

New Hampshire's Ian Freeman Sentenced to 96 Months in Prison for Bitcoin Money Laundering More than $10 million has been exchanged for Bitcoin from love scams and internet scams. By ignoring legal requirements, disabling anti-money laundering features on Bitcoin kiosks, and aiding fraudsters, Freeman facilitated money laundering. He ordered the victims to lie about the money they deposited, evade taxes from 2016 to 2019, and pay $40,000 in fines and restitution to the victims.

Carl Sebastian Greenwood, co-founder of the OneCoin cryptocurrency scheme, was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He, along with Ruja Ignatova (aka Cryptocoin), orchestrated the massive OneCoin scam, marketing fraudulent cryptocurrency through a global multi-level marketing network. Greenwood was ordered to pay nearly $300 million in damages for his role in the scheme, which resulted in more than $4 billion in investments from millions of victims.