Latvian Extradited to US for Wire Fraud Involving Crypto Investments – Bitcoin News

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A Lat­vian nation­al has been hand­ed over to the Unit­ed States where he is accused of fraud through sev­er­al com­pa­nies offer­ing false cryp­to invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Ivars Auzins will appear in a fed­er­al court in Brook­lyn to face mul­ti­ple charges of wire and secu­ri­ties fraud.

Latvian Authorities Transfer Alleged Crypto Fraudster to US Custody

Ivars Auzins, a cit­i­zen of the small Baltic nation of Latvia, was extra­dit­ed to the Unit­ed States on Fri­day. The Lat­vian has been hand­ed over to the Amer­i­can judi­cia­ry on a six-count indict­ment charg­ing him with wire fraud, secu­ri­ties fraud, and con­spir­a­cies to com­mit wire and secu­ri­ties fraud in con­nec­tion with the oper­a­tion of eight busi­ness­es that pur­port­ed to offer, invest in, or mine dig­i­tal assets.

Auzins will be arraigned on the indict­ment on Sat­ur­day in a fed­er­al court in Brook­lyn before the Hon­or­able Roanne L. Mann., the U.S. Depart­ment of Jus­tice said in a press release. The charges were announced by Unit­ed States Attor­ney for the East­ern Dis­trict of New York Bre­on Peace and Michael J. Driscoll, assis­tant direc­tor-in-charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI:

Auzins per­pe­trat­ed a brazen scheme in which he fleeced investors who fun­neled mil­lions of dol­lars into fraud­u­lent cryp­tocur­ren­cy. This Office will con­tin­ue to vig­or­ous­ly inves­ti­gate and pros­e­cute those who lie and steal from investors, includ­ing those like the defen­dant who oper­ate from abroad.

Accord­ing to the indict­ment, the Lat­vian alleged­ly ran sev­er­al com­pa­nies, the “Auzins Enti­ties,” which adver­tised through email cam­paigns, social media, and web­sites ded­i­cat­ed to cryp­tocur­ren­cies. They sug­gest­ed valu­able invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties and solicit­ed invest­ments before sud­den­ly disappearing.

Two of these, Denaro and Bitroad, raised funds through ini­tial coin offer­ings (ICOs). Impres­sio Estate, Broi Invest­ments (Bankroi), Change­pro, Gem­neon Invest­ments, and Lycovest pre­sent­ed them­selves as cryp­to invest­ment plat­forms pro­vid­ing dif­fer­ent invest­ment plans and prof­it rates. Inno­vamine offered invest­ments in min­ing a num­ber of coins, includ­ing bit­coin (BTC) and ether (ETH).

Auzins and his co-con­spir­a­tors alleged­ly enticed investors to put mon­ey into their projects through a series of mate­r­i­al mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tions and omis­sions about the offered prod­ucts and ser­vices, the prof­its that investors would earn by invest­ing in the Auzins Enti­ties, and the indi­vid­u­als who oper­at­ed them.

Between approx­i­mate­ly Novem­ber 2017 and July 2019, indi­vid­u­als in the Unit­ed States and oth­er juris­dic­tions trans­ferred at least $7 mil­lion in dig­i­tal assets to Auzins’s com­pa­nies. Short­ly after receiv­ing these invest­ments, these enti­ties dis­ap­peared with­out pro­vid­ing their promised ser­vices, the DOJ point­ed out.

The Jus­tice Department’s Office of Inter­na­tion­al Affairs worked with Lat­vian law enforce­ment agen­cies to secure the arrest and extra­di­tion of Ivars Auzins to the Unit­ed States, and the U.S. Mar­shals Ser­vice car­ried out the extra­di­tion, the announce­ment details. The New York Region­al Office of the U.S. Secu­ri­ties and Exchange Com­mis­sion assist­ed the investigation.

Auzins’s trans­fer to the U.S. comes after the recent extra­di­tions of two Russ­ian nation­als accused by Amer­i­can author­i­ties of cryp­to-relat­ed crime. Last week, the Nether­lands trans­ferred 29-year-old Denis Dub­nikov, who is accused of laun­der­ing pro­ceeds of ran­somware attacks on indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions in the Unit­ed States, includ­ing hos­pi­tals and health­care providers. Ear­li­er this month, Greece extra­dit­ed 42-year-old Alexan­der Vin­nik, alleged oper­a­tor of BTC‑e, who alleged­ly laun­dered at least $4 bil­lion through the now-defunct dig­i­tal asset exchange.

Tags in this story
Cryp­to, Cryp­to Fraud, cryp­to invest­ments, Cryp­tocur­ren­cies, Cryp­tocur­ren­cy, enti­ties, extra­di­tion, fraud­ster, ICOs, Invest­ments, Investors, Ivars Auzins, Latvia, Lat­vian, Secu­ri­ties

Do you expect more extra­di­tions to the U.S. of peo­ple sus­pect­ed of cryp­to-relat­ed crime? Tell us in the com­ments sec­tion below. 

Lubomir Tassev 

Lubomir Tas­sev is a jour­nal­ist from tech-savvy East­ern Europe who likes Hitchens’s quote: “Being a writer is what I am, rather than what I do.” Besides cryp­to, blockchain and fin­tech, inter­na­tion­al pol­i­tics and eco­nom­ics are two oth­er sources of inspiration.




Image Cred­its: Shut­ter­stock, Pix­abay, Wiki Com­mons, Nomad_Soul

Dis­claimer: This arti­cle is for infor­ma­tion­al pur­pos­es only. It is not a direct offer or solic­i­ta­tion of an offer to buy or sell, or a rec­om­men­da­tion or endorse­ment of any prod­ucts, ser­vices, or com­pa­nies. Bitcoin.com does not pro­vide invest­ment, tax, legal, or account­ing advice. Nei­ther the com­pa­ny nor the author is respon­si­ble, direct­ly or indi­rect­ly, for any dam­age or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in con­nec­tion with the use of or reliance on any con­tent, goods or ser­vices men­tioned in this article.



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