The police in the Netherlands arrested three men on charges of defrauding investors and selling a crypto asset they issued, the price of which was then deliberately reduced.
According to a press release from the Dutch National Police, law enforcement agencies are accusing the suspects of fraud and embezzlement, and do not rule out additional arrests as part of an investigation into the activities of the Coinhouse.eu cryptocurrency exchange, which the authorities suspected of stealing customer money and fraud.
The authorities describe the “pump and dump” scheme as follows: One of the men issued a crypto asset and advertised it on a cryptocurrency platform and on Twitter, luring investors and driving up the price. He then sold a large number of coins in a short amount of time, rendering them "worthless."
Police arrested one of the attackers at a warehouse in Deventer, which contained several computers used to mine cryptocurrency. Law enforcement officials also report electricity theft.
According to a police statement, the man is also suspected of a similar attempt to defraud investors using the crypto assets ERSO, MALC and EUROP. During the investigation, the police arrested the criminals' real estate, confiscated cars, computers and cryptocurrency.
According to the Dutch prosecutor's office, during 2020, the country's authorities confiscated cryptocurrencies worth about 8 million euros from criminals. In 2019, the amount of confiscations amounted to 1.1 million euros.
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