Bitcoin pyramid schemes wreak havoc on Brazil's 'New Egypt'
Written by on July 13, 2023
Sixteen other associates were also charged, including Diaz Zerpa, dos Santos’ 38-year-old wife, who left the country weeks before the raid and is believed to be in Florida, according to authorities.
They say she withdrew more than 4,300 bitcoins worth $185 million (1 billion reais). AP attempts to locate her were unsuccessful.
The chubby young man in thick-rimmed glasses was also gaining a taste for the high life, police and prosecutors said.
Dos Santos bought expensive jewelry and a swanky apartment as contracts poured in from elsewhere in Latin America and as far away as the U.S., Europe and the Gulf.
And Rio de Janeiro has recently said it wants to offer incentives to those paying city property taxes using bitcoins. At the same time, Brazil´s securities regulator was making digital currencies more attractive: It authorized the country´s investment funds to invest in cryptocurrencies in 2018, giving them greater credibility.
Last year, Brazil approved Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, only the second country in the world to do so.
“The talk of the town was to know how much [bitcoin] was at, who was giving a bigger return,” he said. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)” class=”blkBorder img-share” />
Mayor Jose Bonifacio listens during an interview in his City Hall office of Cabo Frio, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec.
15, 2021. Bonifacio acknowledges his city found itself under a spell.
Prosecutors have identified at least 27,000 G.A.S.
Rio state police have also linked two attempted killings to dos Santos and what they called his “extermination team.” On March 20, a trader known as Nilsinho was shot while driving his BMW through Cabo Frio.
He was severely injured but survived. Three months later another firm´s operator was targeted, his car hit by 40 bullets; he also survived.
The case also underscores the fast-growing appetite for cryptocurrencies in Brazil, where years of economic and political crises have made digital currencies an attractive shield against depreciation of the Brazilian real and double-digit inflation.
(AP Photo/Bruna Prado)” class=”blkBorder img-share” />
Lawyer Luciano Regis, 35, during an interview in Sao Pedro da Aldeia, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec.
15, 2021. Regis, a lawyer representing victims of G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who has become the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil’s biggest-ever pyramid schemes. Regis, a lawyer representing victims of G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who has become the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil’s biggest-ever pyramid schemes. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)” class=”blkBorder img-share” style=”max-width:100%” />
