Police say a gang of Bitcoin fraudsters made so much money they handed out £5,000 gift cards to people in the street and bought cars for people they met in the pub.
Four criminals at the centre of the £22m conspiracy have now been sentenced. They worked with ringleader James Parker, who masterminded the scam from his Blackpool home. Parker died in 2021 before he could be brought to justice.
Between October 2017 and January 2018 the group exploited a loophole to siphon off more than £20m from Parker's trading account on an Australian-based cryptocurrency exchange. Parker's corrupt financial adviser Stephen Boys, nicknamed 'Rodney' after the character in Only Fools and Horses, helped launder the stolen funds.
