Brazilian professional soccer players Gustavo Scarpa, Mayke Rocha de Oliveira, and Willian Bigode have reportedly lost more than $5 million due to investing in an allegedly fraudulent cryptocurrency company called Xland.
The company said it was not running a pyramid scheme and promised to reimburse victims.
Athletes have fallen victims
Scarpa, a Brazilian soccer player who plays for Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, and Mayke Rocha de Oliveira (better known as Mayke), who competes for Palmeiras in Brazil’s Serie A, were allegedly urged to join Xland as investors by Willian Bigode.
The platform promised returns of up to 5% per month, but it seems that it depleted the investment of the players. Scarpa distributed 6.3 million reais (approximately $1.2 million), while Mayke parted with 4 million reais (approximately $757,000). Both players filed complaints with the police several months ago. Scarpa recently commented:
“I have always seen stupid people fall victim to pyramid schemes and scams. Finding myself in a situation like this is horrible.”
Bigode, a former teammate of the victims at Palmeiras, defending champions of Brazil, denied persuading the players to invest in Xland. He said that he is also a victim of the alleged scam, losing 17.5 million reais (more than $3.3 million):
“I am not a scammer, I did not take anyone’s money. I am also a victim, because to this day I have not recovered my own money.
Vinicius Salva, the lead investigator in the case, said there was “strong evidence” that Xland operated as a pyramid scheme. On the other hand, the firm rejected those claims, saying that investor losses were due to the demise of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022. Xland also promised to restore the funds of football players.
Some of the biggest crypto scams in Brazil
The largest nation by area in South America has become a hotbed of cryptocurrency schemes in recent years.
local authorities arrested Claudio Oliveira, aka “The Bitcoin King”, in 2021 on suspicion of stealing 7,000 BTC from clients of his Grupo Bitcoin Banco. Investigators claimed that he transferred the stolen assets to his personal wallet. Following his arrest, police seized wallets belonging to Oliveira, along with luxury cars and a large amount of cash.
Brazilian law enforcement carried out a similar operation last year, hesitant the operations of a criminal organization led by businessman Francisco Valdevino da Silva, better known as the “Bitcoin Sheikh”. According to the allegations, the gang members lured people into joining their crypto platform, promising up to 20% return on their investment.
The investigation, dubbed “Operation Poyais,” estimated that the criminals stole a significant amount of funds from victims over the years and laundered $766 million in digital currencies.
Featured image courtesy of Nottingham Post
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