OmegaPro co-founder arrested for $4 billion cryptocurrency scam

Author: Tom Mitchelhill, CoinTelegraph; Compiler: Wuzhu, Golden Finance

Andreas Szakacs, co-founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency and forex platform OmegaPro, was arrested in Turkey in July. He is accused of defrauding investors through a $4 billion cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

According to local Turkish media reports on August 22, Szakacs is accused of offering huge returns through OmegaPro’s “automatic trading” algorithm, accumulating investor funds and eventually locking their accounts.

Szakacs, a Swedish citizen who changed his name to Emre Avci after moving to Turkey, has denied the allegations.

Szakacs’ arrest followed a tip from an anonymous informant on June 28, which was later confirmed by Dutch national Dr. Abdul Mohaghegh, who claims to represent 3,000 investors who lost a total of $103 million to OmegaPro.

Founded in 2019 and based in Dubai, OmegaPro is a cryptocurrency and forex investment firm that offers investors returns of up to 300% on its suite of paid investment products.

Users of the OmegaPro platform have recounted how small initial investments quickly paid off. Further investments were then requested, and eventually user accounts were locked.

The company reportedly began closing user accounts on November 7, 2022, and stopped withdrawals on November 22, around the same time that cryptocurrency exchange FTX also collapsed.

Omega Pro reminded members that their account passwords would be reset on November 22. Source: Omega Pro Instagram

Before the company collapsed, multiple jurisdictions including France, Belgium, Spain and Peru reportedly issued regulatory fraud warnings against the platform. The platform reportedly primarily targeted non-U.S. users.

Turkish police seized computers, various mobile devices, and 32 crypto cold wallets. Despite Szakacs not providing any information that would allow authorities to access the wallets, Turkish police were able to track more than $160 million in transactions, according to local news outlet Birgun.

Local investigators believe OmegaPro’s funds are closely linked to the notorious OneCoin crypto fraud scheme, which also defrauded investors of $4 billion.

OneCoin was founded in 2014 and was revealed in 2015 as a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. During its two years of operation, it defrauded investors of approximately $4 billion in assets.

Several high-level members of the scheme, including Ignatova’s boyfriend Gilbert Armenta, attorney Mark Scott, former head of legal and compliance Irina Dierzynska, co-founders Karl Sebastian Greenwood, and William Morrow, have been criminally indicted in the United States for their involvement in the scheme.

On June 26, the U.S. State Department increased its reward for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of Ignatova to $5 million, an increase of $4.75 million from the original $250,000, for information leading to Ignatova’s whereabouts.