News linked to both this project and an event.
: South Korea today sentenced a fraud case involving unfair trading terms under the Virtual Asset User Protection Act in its first-instance trial. The Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Park, a cryptocurrency influencer who planned a Meme coin "Rug Pull" scam, to four years in prison. Two accomplices received sentences of two years and six months, and three years in prison with five years of probation, respectively.Prosecutors stated that the defendant issued a Meme coin through Pump.fun and used social media to spread false bullish information, such as "token lock-ups," inflating the coin's price approximately 1,001 times within 26 hours. This attracted about 6,000 investors to buy in, after which the group dumped their holdings to cash out. The gang spent only about 10 million Korean won on the scheme and illegally profited around 400 million Korean won. (Edaily)
the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, in coordination with the U.S. Secret Service's Washington Field Office, announced that investigations into multiple international cyber fraud cases have led to the seizure of over $25 million in cryptocurrency. The funds were allegedly linked to crypto investment scams targeting residents of the United States and Canada.This action is part of the "Scam Center Strike Force," an initiative launched in 2025 by District of Columbia Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro. To date, the task force has recovered assets totaling over $800 million. U.S. prosecutors stated that on July 21, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia filed five civil forfeiture complaints in the U.S. District Court, seeking the forfeiture of over $25 million in crypto assets recovered from various fraud investigations.Investigators indicated that these cases involve multiple money laundering networks with victims worldwide. Criminal groups lured victims into investing through fake crypto investment platforms and online romance scams, then laundered the funds through multi-layered wallet addresses and mixing operations to conceal the source of funds. The seized funds are associated with five major investigations:In one case, Canadian law enforcement provided the U.S. Secret Service with wallet addresses suspected of being used to transfer illicit proceeds. Investigators froze the relevant addresses and traced over 270 suspected victim transactions, involving approximately $10.4 million;The second case involved an online romance scam that defrauded over 200 victims. Illicit funds were transferred through hundreds of intermediate wallet addresses and commingled with funds from other victims, involving approximately $12.08 million;The third case involved a victim from the U.S. capital region who participated in a fraudulent crypto investment project. After failing to withdraw funds, the victim lost contact with the scammers, with the involved amount being approximately $1.23 million;In the fourth case, a victim transferred millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to a fake investment account. Investigators traced some of the funds to six wallet addresses and froze approximately $2.39 million;In the fifth case, scammers impersonated an agency that "recovers stolen funds" to trick victims into paying fees, with the involved amount being approximately $285,000.The U.S. Secret Service stated that these cases remain under active investigation. Law enforcement officials are tracking down the suspects behind the fraud network and will cooperate with international law enforcement agencies to hold them accountable.
Argentine Federal Judge Marcelo Martinez ordered the identification and freezing of a group of wallets linked to Libra, after the Federal Police Cybercrime Technical Department tracked the flow of related funds across multiple crypto networks since May. The investigation involves 8 wallets labeled "Libra team," which are directly connected to the token issuance.The report shows that 4 of these wallets had funneled nearly $57 million to an address, which was previously frozen and then unfrozen by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. On May 10, related funds were transferred to a Tron address via an interoperability protocol, with the amount close to $500,000. At least 10 out of 17 transactions passed through Binance, while another 8 wallets are associated with Bybit, 2 with OKX, and 2 with Bitfinex. Some users involved in the $8.2 million in funds could potentially be identified through the KYC rules of centralized exchanges. The remaining funds are currently managed by Libra Trust, which plans to distribute them as grants to Argentine companies by November. There are already 71 applications pending approval.
Odaily, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a lawsuit against North Carolina resident Trevor Vernon and his company, Argent Capital Management LLC, accusing them of defrauding approximately 60 investors out of a total of $14 million through a fraudulent commodity pool.According to the complaint filed by the CFTC on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, the commodity pool operated by Vernon and his company involved trading in multiple asset classes, including stock index futures options, stock index futures contracts, and crypto assets.The CFTC alleges that Vernon misled investors by portraying himself as a "successful trader" through quarterly financial updates and monthly performance review emails. In reality, however, he incurred substantial losses while trading with investor funds.The regulator stated that Vernon suffered cumulative losses of at least $8.6 million from trading futures, options, and crypto assets. The CFTC claims that his actual trading results were marked by "consistent and catastrophic losses," which significantly contradicted the profitability he presented to investors.
Odaily A federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut has revived common law fraud claims in the Genesis Yield lawsuit against Digital Currency Group founder Barry Silbert, DCG, and other defendants, while allowing federal securities law claims in the case to proceed.The ruling amends a prior decision by the court from February of this year. The plaintiffs had argued that the court has jurisdiction to hear their state law claims under the Class Action Fairness Act. Judge Stefan Underhill accepted this argument and reopened the relevant state law claims.The case revolves around the defunct Genesis Yield lending program, which allowed users to deposit crypto assets and earn interest. Investors allege that Silbert, DCG, and other defendants misled customers about the company's financial health and risk controls before Genesis suspended withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy in early 2023.However, not all state law claims were revived. The court dismissed consumer protection claims from four states and stayed related claims from three others. Overall, the ruling re-centers the dispute regarding fraud liability for DCG and Silbert as a focal point of the case. (The Block)
the Shanghai Baoshan District Procuratorate disclosed a case yesterday. The defendant, Huang, illegally crossed the border to participate in telecom fraud activities abroad, inducing victims to invest in virtual currencies. After the dissolution of the Myawaddy compound in Myanmar, he continued to engage in "pig-butchering" scam fraud. By using methods such as AI face-swapping and communicating through foreign models, he gained victims' trust and then guided them to participate in cryptocurrency investments. Subsequently, a team leader would take over, tricking the victims into registering, depositing, and investing on fake websites. He was ultimately sentenced by the court to two years and six months in prison for fraud, and fined 30,000 Chinese yuan. (CCTV News)
Coinbase officially stated it is cooperating with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in New York to assist in investigating a long-term impersonation scam targeting platform users and supporting victims in recovering funds.According to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, a Brooklyn man has been charged with long-term impersonation of Coinbase customer service. Using social engineering tactics, he tricked users into believing their accounts had been compromised and instructed them to transfer funds to a "secure wallet," subsequently moving and stealing the funds. The case involves approximately 100 victims, with the total amount involved nearing $16 million. Over $600,000 has been recovered so far.Coinbase stated that this type of scam does not stem from platform security vulnerabilities but is a social engineering attack exploiting user trust and a sense of urgency. Common methods include identity forgery, impersonating customer service, and creating panic over account risks. The company stated it has cooperated with law enforcement agencies to complete various investigative tasks, including identifying suspects, assisting with victim notifications, providing data support for legal requests, and conducting on-chain fund tracing. It emphasized that blockchain traceability helps law enforcement track the flow of funds.Coinbase also reminded users that the platform will never ask them to transfer funds to a "secure wallet" or request 2FA codes, seed phrases, or password reset links. It recommends that users only contact customer service through official in-app channels. The company will continue to strengthen its anti-fraud mechanisms, user education, and cooperation with law enforcement agencies to address increasingly sophisticated crypto asset fraud activities.
According to the Xinhua Daily, police in Ya’an City, Sichuan Province, have cracked a cross-border online pornography-related criminal case. The pornographic manga website “Xiuxiu Seman” lured adolescents into making frequent small-value top-ups for profit. The site recorded over 100 million page views, with illicit transaction volumes reaching more than RMB 12 million (approximately USD 1.66 million). Police investigations revealed that domestic suspects received illicit funds through multiple corporate and personal accounts, and then transferred the proceeds overseas via virtual currencies under the direction of Li Mouwu and others. Recently, the Ya’an City Mingshan District People’s Court issued a first-instance verdict, sentencing five defendants to prison terms for crimes including profiting from disseminating obscene materials and aiding information network-related criminal activities. Judicial authorities are still investigating the overseas financial backers behind the website.
Odaily News Court documents released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York reveal that Google security engineer Michele Spagnuolo has been arrested and charged with using material non-public information to place bets on Polymarket related to Google user search results. According to the court documents, Spagnuolo used internal Google tools to track the list of the most searched-for individuals in 2025 and transferred approximately 3.8 million USDC to a Polymarket address. His associated account, AlphaRaccoon, placed bets on D4vd becoming one of the most searched-for individuals in late November just hours after accessing the internal tools. The documents further allege that AlphaRaccoon transferred 5 million USDC.e from a Polymarket account to a wallet, and subsequently moved the funds through exchange services and privacy tools, with some of the funds ultimately ending up in an account at a payment processing institution in Italy. Spagnuolo is accused of profiting over $1.2 million from these transactions and currently faces charges of commodities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
the Cangshan District People's Procuratorate of Fuzhou City disclosed that a man was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in prison and fined 300,000 yuan for stealing 4 Bitcoins from another person and illegally profiting approximately 900,000 yuan. The verdict was upheld in the second instance.According to the case details, at the end of 2020, a person surnamed Wang commissioned a person surnamed Lin to assist in liquidating his Bitcoin holdings. While accessing Wang's Bitcoin wallet hard drive and computer, Lin stole the wallet's "private key" and related data, transferred 4 Bitcoins to his own account, and subsequently sold them off for profit. In 2024, Wang discovered the asset anomaly and reported it to the police, leading to Lin's arrest.The procuratorate stated that although current Chinese regulations clarify that virtual currencies do not hold legal tender status, Bitcoin possesses value, manageability, and transferability, which aligns with the general characteristics of "property" under criminal law. Therefore, it constitutes an object of property crimes, and related infringing actions will also be subject to criminal liability.
: Bitcoin financial services company Swan Bitcoin (along with its operating entity Electric Solidus Inc. named as defendants) is facing a lawsuit filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, with claims approaching $1 billion.The lawsuit was filed by PCT Litigation Trust, aiming to recover crypto assets related to the 2023 collapse of Prime Trust. The plaintiff accuses Swan of using "material non-public information" to transfer funds out of Prime Trust before its failure, thereby avoiding significant losses.According to the court filing, Swan had transferred assets including approximately 11,992 Bitcoin (currently valued at around $917 million) out of Prime Trust before it filed for bankruptcy, along with roughly $22.4 million in fiat currency, $5 million in stablecoins, and 91,444 XRP tokens.The plaintiff also alleges that Swan had ties to a senior executive at Prime Trust, who also served as an external consultant for Swan. This individual is suspected of providing Swan with information prior to regulatory meetings, thereby helping the company withdraw its assets early.Swan Bitcoin responded, stating that the relevant assets belong to client trust property and should not be used for bankruptcy liquidation, expressing confidence that the court will ultimately support its position. (Decrypt)
Odaily News: Margaret Garnett, a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan, has approved Aave's asset recovery proposal, allowing the transfer of approximately $71 million in ETH previously frozen on Arbitrum and linked to North Korean-linked attacks, to a wallet controlled by Aave LLC, while preserving the legal claims of terrorism victim plaintiffs over the funds. The ruling also amended the earlier freeze notice against the Arbitrum DAO, permitting the transfer to be executed through an on-chain governance vote and exempting those who propose, vote on, or participate in the transfer from liability under the freeze order. The transfer is still subject to an official vote by Arbitrum's on-chain governance. (CoinDesk)
According to Decrypt, an anonymous cryptocurrency whale filed a lawsuit against Coinbase this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing the exchange of refusing to return over $55 million worth of DAI stablecoins stolen in a phishing attack in 2024. The plaintiff claims to have engaged multiple on-chain investigation firms to trace the funds, ultimately identifying that the stolen assets flowed into a Coinbase account. Coinbase confirmed in December 2024 that it had frozen the relevant assets but refused to return them, citing the need for a court order. As of today—more than a year and a half after the incident—the victim has still not recovered the assets and has therefore turned to litigation. The attack was carried out by hackers using the “Inferno Drainer” tool to spoof the DeFi Saver login page; after the victim inadvertently interacted with the fake page, their wallet was fully compromised by the attackers.
According to Cointelegraph, U.S. law firm Gerstein Harrow LLP has filed an application with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York seeking a temporary restraining order and three writs of execution to prevent the Arbitrum DAO from transferring 30,766 ETH (valued at approximately $73 million) frozen following the Kelp vulnerability. The firm argues that its clients obtained default judgments against North Korea in U.S. courts in 2010, 2015, and 2016, entitling them to roughly $877 million in compensation—and contends that the stolen ETH constitutes North Korean-linked assets that should be used to satisfy those judgments. Kelp DAO suffered a $292 million hack on April 18; the attacker was identified as TraderTraitor, a subgroup of the North Korean state-sponsored hacking group Lazarus Group. Aave Labs previously proposed unfreezing the seized funds and transferring them into the “DeFi United” fund to compensate rsETH holders—but this legal action by Gerstein Harrow may significantly delay compensation for victims. Members of the Arbitrum DAO community have criticized the move, arguing it shifts the burden of North Korea’s debts onto another set of victims, thereby exacerbating the original harm. Gerstein Harrow had previously pursued litigation related to the 2023 Heco Bridge hack involving Teth
According to Fox News, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in collaboration with law enforcement agencies in Dubai, China, and Thailand, conducted a large-scale multinational joint operation that successfully dismantled at least nine overseas cryptocurrency scam centers and arrested 276 suspects, involving millions of dollars in illicit funds. In this operation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California filed federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering against six suspects. Those charged include nationals from Myanmar and Indonesia, who operated scam organizations under names such as “Sanduo Group” and “Giant Company.” Dubai police arrested 275 suspects, while the Royal Thai Police apprehended one additional fugitive. These scam networks employed the “pig-butchering” scheme—building fake friendships or romantic relationships to gain victims’ trust, then luring them into transferring funds to fraudulent cryptocurrency investment platforms, after which the proceeds were laundered and transferred to criminal accounts. This operation aligns with the executive order signed by Trump on March 6, 2026, aimed at combating overseas criminal networks that exploit U.S. citizens. The FBI’s dedicated initiative, “Operation Level Up,” has notified approximately 9,000 victims and recovered roughly $562 million in losses for U.S. citizens. The FBI urges victims to report incidents through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
According to South Korean media outlet Newsis, a man in his twenties, who worked as a company finance staff member in South Korea, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by the Busan District Court for embezzling corporate funds to invest in cryptocurrencies. The court determined that between 2021 and 2025, he transferred company funds into his personal account approximately 680 times, embezzling a total of roughly 570 million KRW, which he used for cryptocurrency trading, overseas travel, and daily expenses. He also forged certificates of corporate deposit trust balances to conceal his crimes.
Odaily News: The U.S. Department of Justice disclosed that Carmine Agnello, the grandson of gangster John Gotti, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for fraudulently obtaining approximately $1.1 million in COVID-19 relief funds and investing part of the money into cryptocurrency businesses.Prosecutors stated that between April 2020 and November 2021, Agnello obtained multiple relief loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) through false applications, claiming they were for the operation of his auto parts and recycling business. In reality, he diverted the funds for personal use, with about $420,000 invested in cryptocurrency-related investments.The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York said this conduct occurred during the peak of the pandemic and constituted a serious misuse of government aid funds. Agnello is expected to begin serving his prison sentence on July 1.Furthermore, official data shows that fraud related to U.S. pandemic relief funds is severe. The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that approximately $135 billion (about 15% of the total) flowed into fraudulent activities. (CoinDesk)
Cryptocurrency law firm Burwick Law has filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) against defendants including Walters—the creator of AI16Z and ELIZAOS—alleging violations of consumer protection laws, false advertising, and unjust enrichment. Court documents indicate that the defendants allegedly leveraged the brand reputation of Andreessen Horowitz (“a16z”) to market the project, launching the AI16Z token on Solana on October 24, 2024, later rebranding it as ELIZAOS. The complaint alleges that the project claimed to deploy autonomous AI agents capable of making investment decisions, whereas operations were in fact manually conducted—and no revenue was generated during the litigation period. On January 2, 2025, the token reached an all-time high price of approximately $2.47, with a market capitalization exceeding $2.6 billion; it subsequently collapsed amid large-scale sell-offs by major holders. On-chain data shows that the most profitable trader realized gains of roughly $39 million.