scheme

According to a report by Shangguan News, on May 17, 2026, an elderly man in his 70s, Mr. Gong, from Shuxin Town, Chongming, Shanghai, was deceived by a scammer posing as an "investment mentor" on a short video platform. He was lured into investing in Bitcoin with the bait of "low investment, high returns" and attempted to withdraw 100,000 yuan in cash for transfer at different bank branches twice.After noticing the unusual behavior, the bank teller activated the anti-fraud warning mechanism and coordinated with the police to intervene and dissuade him. The police explained to the elderly man, using real cases, that virtual currency trading and speculation are explicitly prohibited in the country, and that so-called "Bitcoin investments" are all scams. They helped him delete the fraudulent software and block the scammer on WeChat on the spot. After two rounds of patient persuasion from the police and the bank, the elderly man ultimately recognized the scam and gave up the transfer.

According to The Block, the U.S. Department of Justice sentenced Ohio resident Rathnakishore Giri to nine years in prison for operating a long-running investment fraud scheme that defrauded investors of at least $10 million. Giri pleaded guilty in 2024 to a charge of telecommunications fraud. In a revised plea agreement submitted before the sentencing hearing, Giri admitted to continuing to solicit funds from investors even after pleading guilty.The Department of Justice stated that Giri falsely promised high returns and guaranteed the principal was risk-free, while in reality, he used funds from new investors to pay old investors, which is a typical Ponzi scheme. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission previously accused Giri of operating Bitcoin derivatives schemes through multiple entities since 2019 and initiated enforcement action in August 2022, with the Department of Justice filing five counts of telecommunications fraud against him in November 2022.

The co-founder of the crypto platform Forsage, Olena Oblamska, pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud after being extradited from Thailand to the United States. Forsage launched in January 2020, marketing itself to retail investors worldwide as a smart contract-based DApp investment platform. The U.S. Department of Justice accused the platform of using smart contracts on Ethereum, Tron, and BNB Chain to automatically redirect funds from new participants to early investors, constituting a Ponzi and pyramid scheme.Blockchain analysis shows that over 80% of Forsage investors received less cryptocurrency than they deposited, and over 50% received no returns at all. The scam defrauded victims from the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America of approximately $340 million. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had previously filed a civil lawsuit against those involved in August 2022.

On-chain detective ZachXBT exposed American threat actor Dritan Kapllani Jr, claiming he is suspected of participating in a social engineering theft targeting crypto users, totaling approximately $19 million. ZachXBT stated that Dritan has long flaunted luxury cars, high-end watches, private jets, and nightlife on social media. On April 23, 2026, during a "Band 4 Band (B4B)" voice chat on Discord, he publicly displayed an Exodus wallet containing $3.68 million in assets to prove he was wealthier than another hacker.The relevant ETH address is: 0x4487db847db2fc99372a985743a26f46e0b2bba6. ZachXBT tracked and found that this address is linked to a social engineering theft case involving 185 BTC (approximately $13 million) on March 14, 2026. The next day, Dritan's Exodus wallet received about $5.3 million of those funds. By the time of the B4B call six weeks later, about $1.6 million had been spent or laundered.On May 11, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed a criminal indictment against Trenton Johnson, who is accused of participating in the aforementioned 185 BTC theft case and could face up to 40 years in prison. "Coconspirator 1" in the indictment is alleged to be Dritan, who has not yet been formally charged. ZachXBT also pointed out that Dritan is connected to hacker John Daghita (Lick), who was previously arrested for stealing $46 million from the U.S. government, and John had exposed Dritan's old wallet address on Telegram.On-chain analysis shows that this address is related to multiple high-confidence social engineering theft cases in 2025, with a total amount involved exceeding $5.85 million. ZachXBT stated that Dritan has been active in "The Com" hacker circle for a long time and had previously not faced formal charges due to his minor status. He is now over 18 years old, and "the borrowed time may finally be over."

Former Goliath Ventures CEO Christopher Delgado recently publicly apologized to investors after being charged by U.S. prosecutors for operating a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme involving approximately $328 million. Delgado stated that he had betrayed the trust of investors and claimed he had voluntarily returned to the U.S. to face charges of fraud and money laundering.Prosecutors allege that between January 2023 and January 2026, he promised investors fixed monthly returns under the guise of "cryptocurrency liquidity pool investments," while actually using subsequent funds to pay returns to earlier investors. U.S. prosecutors also accused him of using some of the funds to purchase Florida properties worth a total of $14.5 million, as well as for hosting lavish events and trips. Delgado is currently out on bail, and if convicted on all charges, he could face up to 30 years in federal prison.

On-chain detective ZachXBT tweeted that the DSJ Exchange (DSJEX) and the BG Wealth Sharing Ponzi scheme collapsed last week, with a total amount involved exceeding $150 million. The scheme had been operating since 2025, luring victims with high returns of 1.3%-2.6% daily. Between April 27 and May 3, criminals transferred and laundered over $92 million across chains to cover their tracks.ZachXBT stated that it had assisted Tether, Binance security teams, OKX, and U.S. law enforcement, and has currently frozen over $41.5 million in funds, including a single freeze of $38.4 million USDT on the TRON chain by Tether on May 4. ZachXBT warns that such scams primarily target ordinary retail investors, and victims should report to local police in a timely manner.

"On-chain detective" ZachXBT disclosed that the DSJ Exchange (DSJEX) / BG Wealth Sharing Ponzi scheme, involving over $150 million, collapsed last week.Under its leadership, actions were taken in collaboration with Tether, Binance security teams, OKX, and U.S. law enforcement agencies, resulting in approximately $41.5 million in funds being frozen, including $38.4 million frozen by Tether on May 4, and about $3.1 million frozen by other platforms.It is reported that the project has been operating since 2025, using "1.3%--2.6% daily returns" as a gimmick to attract users through referral commissions and tiered rewards. DSJ has been identified as a fraudulent trading platform, BG as a supporting investment organization, and the so-called CEO "Stephen Beard" is also a fictional character. Investigations show that the project team evaded regulation by frequently changing domain names and hot wallets, and promoted false trading signals through messaging applications. Before the collapse, the platform had suspended withdrawals and demanded users pay a 12% "tax" under the pretext of "upcoming IPO."In terms of fund flow, the involved addresses transferred assets through Tokenlon exchanges, cross-chain bridges (such as Bridgers, Butter Network), and stablecoin wrapping/unwrapping, ultimately flowing into addresses of multiple exchanges. Currently, 13 regulatory agencies from five continents have issued risk warnings regarding this project. Analysts believe that this incident once again highlights the critical role of cross-chain tracking and multi-party collaboration in combating cryptocurrency fraud.

According to Politico, Poland's major cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto is facing a serious fraud investigation. Its former CEO went missing in 2022, taking with him the private keys to a cold wallet containing 4,500 bitcoins (currently worth over $340 million). The current CEO has admitted to being unable to access the wallet and has recently been reported to have fled to Israel. Prosecutors estimate potential losses for customers to be around $97 million.On-chain data shows that the bitcoin balance in the platform's hot wallet has plummeted by 99.7% since mid-2024, with users generally reporting difficulties in withdrawing funds. Polish Prime Minister Tusk estimates that up to 30,000 users may be affected.Tusk publicly accused the platform of being funded by Russian-linked money, used to finance opposition lawmakers to obstruct Poland's cryptocurrency regulatory legislation. He bluntly stated that this is a "Polish version of a Ponzi scheme" and criticized the president for vetoing the localization of the EU MiCA framework twice, making Poland a "paradise for scammers."The platform's board stated that they failed to obtain "verifiable information" from the missing CEO and have collectively resigned. The founder has been missing since 2022, and the previously mentioned "suspect kidnapping allegations" case is still under investigation. This incident is expected to prompt Poland and the EU to strengthen regulatory scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that the state has recovered over $5 million from the cryptocurrency platform Uphold due to its role in promoting a fraudulent investment product.The settlement primarily revolves around Uphold's promotional activities for the product CredEarn launched by Cred LLC and its CEO Daniel Schatt. Between January 2019 and October 2020, Uphold advertised CredEarn on its platform and mobile app as a safe, reliable savings product that offered attractive annual returns. However, the Attorney General's office pointed out in a statement that Uphold did not inform users that Cred actually obtained these returns by issuing small loans to low-income video game players, who typically have no credit history and cannot access services from traditional financial institutions.

The Solana Foundation stated that its core development team Anza has reached an agreement with Firedancer, a subsidiary of Jump Crypto, on a potential post-quantum solution, planning to introduce a new digital signature scheme called Falcon.Although the threat of quantum computing is not expected to materialize for several years, Solana has developed a phased upgrade roadmap. This plan includes ongoing research into Falcon and other alternatives, introducing post-quantum solutions for new wallets when necessary, and ultimately completing the migration of existing wallets. Currently, the quantum-resistant primitive Winternitz Vault, developed by Blueshift, has been running on Solana for over two years. The Solana Foundation stated that the network's high-speed, low-latency design can accommodate such solutions, and the migration is not expected to have a significant impact on performance.

Aave officially stated that there may be two types of bad debts arising from the rsETH theft incident, depending on the different handling of rsETH. If the stolen losses are deducted from all circulating rsETH, it is expected to generate $123.7 million in bad debts, which is concentrated in the Ethereum mainnet in absolute terms, and is most severe in proportion on Mantle.If the value of the mainnet rsETH is guaranteed, and all losses are accounted for in the mapped version of rsETH on Layer 2, it is expected to generate $230.1 million in bad debts, all of which will be on Layer 2. Mantle will face a 71.45% WETH shortfall, and Arbitrum will face a 26.67% shortfall; the Ethereum mainnet will not be affected. Aave added that which situation ultimately occurs depends on decisions that Aave cannot control, mainly the accounting method for rsETH and the exchange rate update method of the LRT Oracle.

According to The Street, Goliath Ventures, a cryptocurrency company based in Florida, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in the Southern District of Florida.The company is alleged to be linked to a $328 million Ponzi scheme, with over 2,000 victim investors, including Gregory Wilson, who lost approximately $8.74 million, and John Euliano, who lost about $1.28 million. Additionally, plaintiffs have filed a class-action lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase early next month, accusing it of turning a blind eye to suspicious transactions involving Goliath Ventures.Previously, Goliath Ventures' former CEO Christopher Alexander Delgado was arrested for allegedly being involved in the $328 million Ponzi scheme and faces charges of wire fraud and money laundering. Delgado lured victims under the guise of investing in cryptocurrency liquidity pools and promising monthly returns, but the funds were used to pay returns to earlier investors, purchase luxury homes, and finance extravagant activities.

Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York ruled to deny the motion to dismiss filed by the defendants in the TradeAI/Stakx case, allowing the case to proceed.The case was brought by the cryptocurrency law firm Burwick Law, accusing multiple defendants of operating a fraudulent scheme resembling a Ponzi scheme using NFTs and cryptocurrency investment pools, promising high returns to investors. The estimated losses have exceeded $20 million, with a total scale of approximately $440 million involved. The court rejected all defense arguments from the defendants regarding jurisdiction, venue, and service of process.Regarding defendant Cyrus Abraham's refusal to respond to the lawsuit on the grounds of technical defects in the service of process, the judge clearly stated that litigation is not a game of hide and seek, requiring Abraham to disclose his current residential address to the plaintiff's law firm by March 31, or he would face a default judgment and further sanctions. The court also officially extended the deadline for service to April 22 and has allowed alternative methods of serving legal documents through Ethereum wallets, email, and social media.

In response to former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's claim that Bitcoin is a huge Ponzi scheme, Eric Trump, the son of Trump, commented that he totally disagrees with this view.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted on the X platform expressing his long-standing suspicion that Bitcoin is a "massive Ponzi scheme," and stated that recent cases of investment losses he has heard about have made him more concerned that this judgment may be correct.In response, Michael Saylor, founder and CEO of Bitcoin treasury company Strategy, disagreed with this viewpoint. He pointed out that Ponzi schemes typically require a centralized operator to promise returns and pay early investors with the funds from later investors, whereas Bitcoin has no issuer or promoter, and there are no guaranteed returns; it is merely an open decentralized currency network driven by code and market demand.

On Tuesday, investors filed a class-action lawsuit in the Northern District of California federal court, accusing JPMorgan of failing to stop suspicious transactions in the $328 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme operated by the now-defunct Goliath Ventures, and allowing the company to use its banking infrastructure to collect investor funds.The complaint states that JPMorgan provided exclusive banking services to Goliath from January 2023 to May or June 2025, during which Goliath raised at least $328 million from over 2,000 investors. Approximately $253 million was deposited into JPMorgan's 0305 account, and about $123 million was transferred to Goliath's wallet held on Coinbase.Previously, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida announced the arrest of Goliath CEO Christopher Delgado on February 24, who faces up to 30 years in federal prison. Prosecutors allege that Goliath (formerly known as Gen-Z Venture Firm) operated the scheme from January 2023 to January 2026. Another criminal complaint shows that Goliath also held a business account at Bank of America, with Delgado as a co-signer on that account.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of India announced the arrest of Ayush Varshney, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Darwin Labs, at Mumbai Airport, for allegedly being involved in the notorious GainBitcoin Ponzi scheme. It is reported that Varshney was attempting to leave India at the time.Investigations reveal that the scheme was operated by Variabletech Pte. Ltd., attracting investors by promising high returns on cryptocurrency investments. Law enforcement agencies accuse Darwin Labs of developing and deploying key technological infrastructure for the scheme, including the MCAP cryptocurrency token and ERC-20 smart contracts. Additionally, Darwin provided technical support for the GBMiners.com Bitcoin mining platform, BitCoin Payment Gateway, CoinE Bank Bitcoin wallet, and the GainBitcoin investment website, which were allegedly used to lure and defraud investors. Media reports indicate that the scheme began in 2015 and operated across several states in India. It is estimated that the case involves approximately ₹1,900 million (around $2.1 million) in funds, as well as 29,000 bitcoins. At current prices, these bitcoins are valued at over $2 billion.

According to Bloomberg, this week, the lawyer of Chen Zhi, who is accused of being the head of a large-scale "pig butchering" scam gang, filed a motion in a New York federal court to dismiss the U.S. government's seizure of a batch of Bitcoin related to him. The lawyer argued that the prosecution's allegations regarding Chen Zhi's oversight of the scam operation lack specific evidence and are merely a vague description of the overall situation in Cambodia. They also questioned the timeline of the cryptocurrency seizure, stating that these Bitcoins could not possibly be the proceeds of fraud or money laundering.The U.S. Department of Justice announced the seizure of 127,271 Bitcoins controlled by Chen Zhi last October, which were valued at approximately $15 billion at the time. Chen Zhi had his nationality revoked by Cambodia in January this year and was extradited to China. Following sanctions from the U.S. and the U.K., over $1 billion in assets have been frozen or seized in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. Human rights organizations pointed out that after the closure of the scam operation, thousands of trafficked workers have flowed out from places like Sihanoukville, facing the risk of being sold again.

According to DL News, the Central Bank of Russia has warned that financial pyramid scheme organizers in the country have largely turned to using cryptocurrencies. In 2025, Russian citizens sent funds to cryptocurrency wallets held by fraudsters, involving over 4,600 wallet addresses.The central bank discovered 7,087 financial pyramid schemes, fake brokers, and other fraudulent schemes last year, with 80% operating online, most of which used cryptocurrencies and money mules to transfer funds. In 2025, 84% of fraudsters used cryptocurrencies to raise funds, up from 77% in 2024. The Central Bank of Russia has ordered the blocking of 21,500 related web pages and social media posts.The central bank pointed out that fraudsters choose cryptocurrencies to maintain anonymity and evade punishment, and it has pledged to strengthen monitoring and increase efforts to combat cryptocurrency fraud.