According to the Russian news outlet Forklog report, a total of 750 BTC, worth around $48 million at the time of writing, has been withdrawn from one of the wallets used by the crypto Ponzi scheme Finiko. Youtube blogger Andrey Alistarov first revealed the news about the transfer, revealing that it was made in three separate transactions of 250 BTC each since the beginning of November.
The money was initially moved to a single address.
The money was initially moved to a single address and subsequently sent to another wallet at the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, quoted data from blockchain analysis platform Crystal Blockchain shows. The crypto funds were then divided into smaller amounts and transferred to other addresses, the publication details. Alistarov alleged that these transactions had been ordered by three of Finiko’s high-ranking members who are still at large. Cryptocurrency-related scams have been an area of major concern among regulators around the world.
A Russian high court confirmed international arrest warrants against the fugitives.
Zygmunt Zygmuntovich, Marat Sabirov, and Edward Sabirov, close associates of the pyramid’s founder Kirill Doronin, had fled the Russian Federation as the crypto investment scheme collapsed this summer and avoided detention. In September, a high court in Tatarstan confirmed their international arrest warrants. The Russian vlogger commented that the Finiko co-founders transferred the money in multiple transactions on purpose. Authorities in Russia are currently working to establish all the facts in the case with Finiko, a phantom entity that lured hundreds of thousands of investors by advertising itself as an “automatic profit generation system” and promising extraordinarily high returns.
