An Argentine court has frozen a wallet containing $3.5 million of Tether (USDT) in a crackdown on alleged crypto fraud as part of an ongoing investigation with Rainbowex, a trading Ponzi scheme that has paralyed tens or thousands of victims.
Meanwhile, the Argentine Justice Department carrying out the investigation has also frozen other cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts linked to the people named in the fraudulent scheme, as reported by iProUp. It is part of a campaign by authorities to dismantle what they call a sophisticated financial trap with the lure of extraordinary daily returns of 1 percent to 2 percent, or 350 percent a year.
Argentina Conducts Over 15 Raids on Suspects
Response Authorities have done so by using the most up-to-date on blockchain forensics to trace the pathway in which illicit funds are traced to Rainbowex. Lemon, Argentina’s second largest digital asset exchange, has provided technical support, while forensic analysis has been conducted by blockchain firms Chainalysis and Qlue. And they gave law enforcement the data to unlock the financial web behind the scheme.
The raids to date have numbered over 15 in Argentina. Four people are in jail, while there are other suspects in the jungle. Interpol has been asked by Argentine authorities to help track down suspects thought to be in Malaysia who are accused of creating and running Rainbowex.
The fraud has hit San Pedro, Buenos Aires Province, home to some 70,000 people, very hard. Some 70,000 people in the town are said to have lost their money through promises of impossible returns; a large part of the community lost financially.
Argentine authorities are still gathering evidence and tracking down suspects, domestic and international, as the investigation unfolds. Recovering funds for victims has taken a major step forward with the seizure of the $3.5 million in USDT.
It is a reminder that financial fraud is becoming more sophisticated in the cryptocurrency space, and we need blockchain analytics to help fight such crimes.
