1) Sam Bankman Fried and the FTX exchange - The co-founder and head of the FTX crypto exchange was sentenced to 25 years in prison on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to defraud. FTX clients lost $8 billion, investors lost $1.7 billion, and creditors lost $1.3 billion.
2) Do Kwon and Terra Luna - Kwon, a South Korean citizen, was indicted in the United States on eight counts of fraud, including securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy. The collapse of TerraUSD and Luna wiped out approximately $40 billion from the crypto market.
3) Avi Eisenberg and Mango Markets - In December 2022, a crypto trader was arrested in Puerto Rico on charges of manipulating prices on the Mango Markets crypto exchange. Eisenberg was accused of fraudulently obtaining approximately $110 million in cryptocurrency by manipulating the price of certain perpetual futures contracts on the Mango markets.
4) Alex Mashinsky and Celsius Network - Last July, the former CEO of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network was arrested and charged by U.S. prosecutors with wire fraud and other crimes. He is accused of orchestrating a long-running scheme to defraud customers that ultimately led to the collapse of the Celsius chain with more than $1 billion in debt.
5) Thomas Smith, Kyle Nagy and Braden Caroni - These are the people behind the SafeMoon token crypto scam, a digital asset once valued at over $8 billion. They are accused of deceiving investors about the liquidity of the token and making false promises about its features, claiming that this would lead to a record price increase.
As these cases clearly show, no one is safe from scams. That's why diversify your portfolios and stick to your risk profile.
