Imprisonment without bail for the alleged scammer arrested in Torrox

Imprisonment without bail for the alleged scammer arrested in Torrox.

Imprisonment without bail for the alleged scammer arrested in Torrox. Image: Pinterest

Imprisonment without bail for the alleged scammer arrested in Torrox.
 
 
The judge of the Audiencia Nacional Santiago Pedraz has decided that Javier Biosca, founder of Algorithms Group, who was wanted and detained on Monday night in Torrox (Malaga), be committed to imprisonment without bail for an alleged cryptocurrency scam involving more than 280 million euros.
According to legal sources cited by Efe, the head of the Central Court of Instruction No. 1 has detained Biosca pending the recording of his statement regarding the circumstances ascribed to him, 20 Minutos reports.
This is the largest accused cryptocurrency fraud in Spain to date, as Algorithms Group, a bitcoin investment business based in London, is believed to have scammed over 3,000 investors of more than 280 million euros, according to the complaint filed by Zaballos Abogados.
The complaint, which was admitted for processing on 4 May, alleges a series of accused offenses including fraud, fraudulent trading, money laundering, corporate offenses, misappropriation, and illicit association against Biosca, who has been sought since 10 May, his wife Paloma Gallardo, and his son Javier.
According to the paper obtained by Efe, the firm – initially based in the main suspect’s Toledo residence – consisted in Biosca investing an initial sum and guaranteeing a weekly profit of between 20% and 25%.
This quantity was gradually reduced until it was between 8% and 12% per week.
This system began with “a few investors who contributed an amount of money in various currencies (euros, dollars, Mexican pesos…), in ‘bitcoin’, or in kind,” as was the case with one of those impacted, a jeweller by trade, who contributed diamonds.
Although they initially gave between 5,000 and 30,000 euros on average, some of them apparently contributed up to 20 million euros.
According to the suit, “the first inconsistency in Biosca’s performance of the contracts occurred during the epidemic and imprisonment.”
During those months, “he stopped paying practically all” investors, eliciting their suspicion; a month and a half later, “under public pressure,” he “resumed his duties” and “increased his personal security.”
This calmed investors, “who began to trust him again and to recommend him to other people”, as they understood the situation “that the whole of Spain and the world was experiencing”, in other words, the pandemic.
As reported by Axarquia Plus

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Natasha Brewer

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