TLDR:
- Andreas Szakacs, co-founder of OmegaPro, apprehended in Istanbul for supposed $4B crypto rip-off
- OmegaPro ran as a Ponzi plan, guaranteeing high returns on crypto/forex financial investments
- Business collapsed in late 2022, stopping all withdrawals and operations by July 2023
- Szakacs acquired Turkish citizenship under the name Emre Avci before arrest
- Authorities took cold wallets and computer systems, tracking $160M in crypto deals
Andreas Szakacs, co-founder of the cryptocurrency and forex platform OmegaPro, was apprehended in Istanbul, Turkey, for his supposed participation in a $4 billion cryptocurrency scams.
Szakacs, a Swedish person who later on acquired Turkish citizenship under the name Emre Avci, is implicated of managing a massive Ponzi plan that impacted countless financiers worldwide.
The mugshot of Szakacs (Emre Avcı) is drawn from the day-to-day BirGün.
OmegaPro, established in 2019 and headquartered in Dubai, provided financiers returns of approximately 300% on different paid financial investment items.
The business declared to utilize an “automatic trading” algorithm to create these high returns. The company design supposedly relied on utilizing funds from brand-new financiers to pay returns to previously individuals, developing an impression of success.
The business got trustworthiness through aggressive marketing strategies, consisting of arranging football competitions including previous stars like Ronaldinho, Kaka, and John Terry. These efforts, integrated with phony news article and awards, assisted produce a distinguished image for the business.
The plan started to decipher in November 2022 when OmegaPro stopped processing withdrawals. By July 2023, the business had actually totally closed down its operations, leaving numerous financiers not able to access their funds.
The collapse accompanied the wider cryptocurrency market recession and the prominent failure of the FTX exchange.
Szakacs's arrest followed a confidential idea to the Istanbul Provincial Gendarmerie Command on June 28, 2024.
This info was supported by Dr. Abdul Ghaffar Mohaghegh, a Dutch nationwide declaring to represent 3,000 financiers who jointly lost $103 million. Mohaghegh specified he had actually personally invested $7 million in OmegaPro.
Throughout the arrest, authorities took 32 cryptocurrency cold wallets, a number of password storage gadgets, and computer systems including OmegaPro files and records of big monetary deals.
An initial evaluation of Szakacs's digital gadgets exposed $160 million worth of cryptocurrency deals within simply one month.
Szakacs rejected the allegations of scams, declaring that the business declared bankruptcy in late 2022 which he and his partners suffered considerable losses. He mentioned that they had actually compensated numerous victims till the insolvency happened.
The OmegaPro case has actually stimulated examinations and legal actions in numerous nations. In France alone, over 1,500 problems have actually resulted in a class action suit. Comparable legal procedures are underway in Colombia, Mexico, Congo, Portugal, the UK, and Myanmar.
Turkish authorities likewise determined 16 regional plaintiffs who had actually utilized the “Omega Invest” app, thought to be a subsidiary of OmegaPro. These people reported comparable experiences of preliminary little financial investments yielding fast returns,
