Police say a Cryptocurrency gang worth £22million handed out £5k gift cards in the street. Officials claim the Bitcoin scammers were so wealthy that they bought cars for people they met in the pub.
Manchester Evening News reports that between October 2017 and January 2018, the group exploited a loophole to siphon off more than £20million. The money came from James 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. The group's ringleader, Parker, died in 2021 before he could be brought to justice.
Meanwhile, the other four criminals at the centre of the £22million conspiracy have now been sentenced. During the trial, the lavish exploits of the gang were laid bare including their spending sprees and random acts of generosity.
The court heard that Boys took £1million cash in a suitcase to buy a villa from Russians he met in the back office of an estate agent and paid £60,000 to pay off corrupt officials so he could carry on laundering money. During the investigation, police recovered 445 Bitcoin, then worth £22million.
Alongside the cryptocurrency, cops seized luxury watches, houses, cars and designer goods, including a £600 wine cooler, along with more than £1million in bank accounts. A Crown Prosecution Service spokesman said: "A very significant amount of the laundered assets have been returned or are in the process of being recovered on the behalf of the Australian cryptocurrency exchange."
The court heard that Boys worked with a UK national based in Dubai to convert the cryptocurrency into cash. It was then laundered through various foreign based online accounts.
Det Sgt David Wainwright, of Lancashire Police's Fraud Unit, said: "The scale of the fraud in this case is absolutely staggering and led to the suspects literally having more money than they could spend. I would like to pay tribute to all the agencies who worked closely together to bring these people to justice."
Prosecutor Jonathan Kelleher added: "These offenders used the internet from the comfort of their own homes to obtain tens of millions of pounds worth of Bitcoin which did not belong to them."
Stephen Boys was found guilty of converting and transferring criminal property and jailed for six years. Kelly Caton was convicted of fraud, converting and acquiring criminal property and jailed for four-and-a-half years.
Meanwhile, Jordan Robinson was found guilty of fraud, converting and acquiring criminal property and was also jailed for four-and-a-half years. James Austin-Beddoes was found guilty of fraud and acquiring criminal property. He pleaded guilty to converting criminal property earlier and was jailed for 18 months, suspended for a year.
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