Spanish police have arrested five people in Madrid and the Canary Islands, accused of helping move and hide around $540 million (€460 million) linked to fake cryptocurrency investment schemes.
These scams are believed to have tricked more than 5,000 people.
The investigation was not just limited to Spain. Europol helped with the operation, along with law enforcement teams from Estonia, France, and the United States — including the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The investigation began in 2023, and when the arrests happened, a cryptocurrency expert was brought in to help track and possibly recover the stolen money.
Authorities say the gang used a clever method to cover their tracks. They sent the money through hard-to-trace channels in parts of Asia, making it very difficult to follow the trail.
According to Europol, the criminals worked with many helpers across different countries. They moved the money through cash withdrawals, bank transfers, and cryptocurrency transactions. A lot of this was done through a network of fake companies and bank accounts set up in Hong Kong. These were made under different names and used across several crypto platforms to receive and move the money.
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