Austrians arrested in Cyprus for international cryptocurrency scam
Six Austrians have been arrested in Austria, Cyprus, and Czechia for an online cryptocurrency scam involving a fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO) in December 2017. Authorities seized over €500,000 in cryptocurrency, €250,000 in fiat currency, two cars, and a luxury property worth €1.4 million. The scammers posed as a legitimate trading company offering a new cryptocurrency and defrauded investors before disappearing in February 2018. Europol and Eurojust supported the investigation, with Europol providing analytical support and deploying a specialist to Cyprus, and Eurojust setting up a coordination centre for real-time communication among participating authorities.
