As the United States government continues to bring crypto scammers to justice, Roger Nils-Jonas Karlsson, a Swedish resident, was arrested in Thailand for cryptocurrency scam.
The arrest was announced on June 19 and Karlsson will stand trial in the state of California. The offender is the owner of Eastern Metal Securities and was accused of fraud and money laundering. The scammer ripped off eleven million dollars.
This started back in 2006 when Karlsson started exploiting his platform in order to deceive possible investors. The website advised the users to invest $98 into a company allegedly called PFRPP and receive 1.15 kilograms of gold for that. However, at the time, that amount of gold was valued $45,000. If the repayment didn’t take place, almost all of the invested money would be paid back. The money of investors was put into Karlsson’s personal account after which he invested the money into real estate.
Karlsson lied about the fact that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission were assisting him in the payout process. On the other hand, he also encouraged investors to use crypto coins such as Bitcoin, as a means of payment. Karlsson had possibly deceived at least over 3,575 people.
Karlsson currently faces twenty years in jail and a fine of $250,000 for fraud as well as twenty years in jail and $500,000 fine for money laundering.
