Author: Principal actors in the PlusToken Ponzi scheme have bagged 11-year prison sentences in China. The scheme managed to defraud investors of billions of dollars in various cryptocurrencies.
End of the Road for PlusToken Scammers
According to the South China Morning Post on Dec. 1, principal members of the PlusToken scam project were sentenced to 11 years imprisonment by a Chinese court. The suspects were found guilty of duping investors of $2.25 billion worth of crypto tokens.
As previously reported by CryptoPotato, authorities arrested 27 key members of the crypto Ponzi scheme in July, in addition to apprehending 82 other individuals linked to PlusToken.
Later in November, Chinese law enforcement seized $4 billion worth of crypto from operators of the fraudulent project. According to court documents, the confiscated cryptocurrency tokens included 94, 775 BTC, 79,581 BCH, 833,083 ETH, 74,167 DASH, 1.4 million LTC, 6 billion Doge, 27.6 million EOS, and 213,724 USDT.
The clampdown of the PlusToken scam project is in line with China’s agenda to rid the country of fraudulent schemes. Also, the latest development signals a win for authorities as the PlusToken platform was one of the largest Ponzi schemes in China.
What Happened?
PlusToken, founded by Chen Bo back in 2018, had all the hallmarks of a classic Ponzi scheme, with funds generated from later investors used to benefit early investors. Chen and other operators employed social media and offline activities to get members, who in turn paid for membership fees up to $500 worth of bitcoin and other crypto tokens.
Between 2018-2019, the platform had over 2.5 million members, with rewards based on the number of new recruits that others brought on board. Meanwhile, the total number of funds generated from members was reportedly over $2.2 billion worth of crypto.
Also, court documents alleged that Chen Bo spent some of the funds on extravagant lifestyles, buying expensive cars and properties for himself and his relatives.
In addition to the PlusToken founder and other key members spending time behind bars, the ringleaders were slammed with fines. The PlusToken scammers were fined between 120,00 yuan ($18K) and 6 million yuan ($912,922),
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