Swedish National Andreas Szakacs Arrested in Turkey for Orchestrating $4B OmegaPro Crypto Scam

The operation, estimated to have defrauded investors of approximately $4 billion, has drawn widespread attention for its scale and complexity.

Swedish national Andreas Szakacs has been arrested by Turkish authorities for his alleged involvement in orchestrating the massive OmegaPro cryptocurrency scam. The operation, which is believed to have defrauded investors of around $4 billion, has garnered significant attention due to its scale and complexity.

OmegaPro, a platform that was disguised as a legitimate investment opportunity, was structured in a manner that closely resembled a Ponzi scheme. This type of scheme involves using funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier participants, creating an illusion of profitability that is ultimately unsustainable and designed to conceal the fraudulent nature of the enterprise.

According to a report by Turkiye Today on August 21, Szakacs, who had adopted the alias Emre Avci after relocating to Turkey, was apprehended following a tip-off from an anonymous informant. The information provided by the informant led authorities to a villa in Istanbul, where Szakacs was arrested on July 9. The arrest was also confirmed by Abdul Ghaffar Mohageh, a Dutch national who is representing around 3,000 victims who collectively lost $103 million in the scam. Mohageh himself had invested $7 million.

OmegaPro closed down after it stopped allowing fund withdrawals in November 2022 and eventually shut down completely by July 2023. The collapse of the scheme left many investors unable to access their money, resulting in widespread financial losses and distress among its clientele.

In addition to Szakacs's arrest, the Turkish Gendarmerie noted that 16 local users of the OmegaPro app had been identified. These individuals reported that initial investments appeared to generate quick returns, which enticed them to make larger deposits. However, when investors attempted to withdraw their funds, their accounts were emptied, revealing the fraudulent nature of the operation.

Interestingly, the OmegaPro scam bears striking similarities to OneCoin, another major cryptocurrency fraud that led to losses estimated at $4 billion. Both schemes employed deceptive practices to attract and maintain investor confidence while systematically siphoning funds. In June 2024, the U.S. State Department increased the reward for information leading to the capture of OneCoin's founder, Ruja Ignatova, who has been on the run since 2017, to $5 million.

In September 2023, Carl Sebastian Greenwood, a central figure in the OneCoin scheme, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and fined $300 million. Earlier this year, Irina Dilkinska, the former head of legal and compliance at OneCoin, was sentenced to four years in prison and fined $111 million by a U.S. court.

The above is the detailed content of Swedish National Andreas Szakacs Arrested in Turkey for Orchestrating $4B OmegaPro Crypto Scam. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!