Four people have been sentenced to a total of 15 years in prison for their involvement in a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency fraud.
The group, led by leader James Parker, exploited a vulnerability in an unnamed Australian cryptocurrency exchange to siphon £22 million (equivalent to nearly $26 million at press time) through Parker’s trading account between October 2017 and January 2018.
While Parker died in 2021 before he could be brought to justice, his accomplices are being prosecuted.
Parker’s financial adviser, Stephen Boys, allegedly helped launder the stolen funds. The man collaborated with a UK citizen living in Dubai to exchange the cryptocurrency for fiat money and launder it through offshore online accounts.
Mass scams fall apart
The group’s fraud was so successful that they had more money than they knew what to do with. They reportedly gave away £5,000 worth of gift cards to strangers on the street and acquired cars for people they met in pubs.
During the trial, Boys testified that he spent £1 million in cash carrying it in a suitcase to buy a villa from Russian citizens. He also paid £60,000 to corrupt officials so he could continue laundering the proceeds of the hack.
The group eventually attracted the attention of law enforcement, leading to their arrest and conviction for fraud and criminal property transfer. During the investigation, police recovered 445 bitcoins (BTC), worth $9.5 million at press time, along with luxury watches, houses, cars, and designer items.
Boys was found guilty of converting and transferring criminal property and sentenced to six years in prison. On the other hand, Kelly Caton was found guilty of fraud, conversion and criminal property acquisition and sentenced to four and a half years.
Jordan Robinson, 24, was found guilty of fraud, conversion and criminal property acquisition and was sentenced to four and a half years. James Austin-Beddoes, 28, was found guilty of fraud and criminal property acquisition and was sentenced to 18 months, suspended for one year.
A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said that “a very significant amount of the laundered assets have been returned or are in the process of being recovered on behalf of the Australian cryptocurrency exchange.”
The report follows a recent report that DeFi digital asset lending firm LendHub has lost $6 million worth of digital assets on its network following another attack. On January 15, it was also reported that NFT GOD, an NFT blogger, lost his “entire digital livelihood” after clicking a phishing advertising link on Google.
