After being indicted in Texas final July, prosecutors in New York have now filed a second indictment towards Kristijan Krstic.
Kristijan Krstic’s Ponzi empire got here crumbling down, following his arrest by Serbian authorities on the behest of the FBI.
As a part of a prison case towards Haojia Miao, one in all Krstic’s accomplices, beforehand sealed indictment particulars had been made public in early February.
Individually, prosecutors in New York have filed their very own indictment towards Krstic. That case was made public on February twenty fourth.
Whereas the Texas indictment pertains to a number of defendants, Krstic (proper) is the one defendant indicted in New York.
As per the filed indictment, Krstic is going through prison costs associated to Bitcoiin and Begin Choices.
The NY indictment frames Bitcoiin as a continuation of the Begin Choices Ponzi scheme.
Bitcoiin had beforehand completed enterprise below completely different company names, together with the title “Begin Choices” in or in regards to the fall of 2017.
Begin Choices (was) based by the defendant KRISTIJAN KRSTIC, alongside together with his co-conspirators.
Of observe is the Texas indictment stops in need of documenting Bitcoiin, Krstic’s final Ponzi scheme.
The NY indictment names Sasha Bjelov and John DeMarr as Krstic’s accomplices.
John DeMarr was arrested by US authorities final month. He’s been individually indicted in New York.
A 3rd unnamed particular person can also be referenced in Krstic’s indictment;
Particular person 1, a person whose identification is understood to the Grand Jury, was an American citizen who was a resident of Nevada.
Particular person 1 beforehand labored as an lawyer in California, however resigned his license to follow whereas going through disciplinary costs in or about 2011.
Particular person 1, appearing primarily on the course of DeMarr, additionally served as a ghostwriter of press releases, technical whitepapers and web site content material for numerous digital asset-related corporations, together with Bitcoiin.
I consider “Particular person 1” is Krstic’s confederate Robin Enos. Why he’s not as of but being named is unclear (nonetheless on the run?).
Begin Choices launched in late 2017, lasting only some months earlier than it’s collaspe in late January 2018.
Bitcoiin surfaced lower than a month later in February 2018.
As detailed within the New York indictment;
KRSTIC and his coconspirators by no means transferred B2G tokens to traders, which they by no means disclosed to traders.
Reasonably, KRSTIC and his co-conspirators created a digital token known as “B2G”—not a mineable cryptocurrency—on the blockchain of one other cryptocurrency, however they by no means transferred these tokens to traders on that blockchain.
As an alternative, KRSTIC and his co-conspirators created a fictitious on-line consumer interface for traders on the B2G Web site.
When traders logged on, they seen what seemed to be B2G tokens.
In actuality, they by no means held B2G tokens as a result of the tokens didn’t exist.
Following Bitcoiin’s collapse in early 2018, DeMarr transferred $7 million in stolen investor funds to Krstic.
Round that point, KRSTIC stopped responding to all communications and absconded with these traders’ funds.
A press launch issued by Begin Choices claimed that the corporate had been bought to Russian enterprise capitalists.
Within the Texas indictment the DOJ pegged Krstic’s Ponzi empire investor losses at over $70 million.
The New York indictment costs Krstic with
- one depend of securities fraud conspiracy;
- one depend of securities fraud;
- one depend of wire fraud conspiracy; and
- one depend of cash laundering conspiracy.
The DOJ are additionally in search of forfeiture of Krstic’s ill-gotten features.
Following his arrest in Serbia, Krstic was to be extradited to the US. Now we have but to obtain affirmation that has or hasn’t occurred but.
I’ve added Krstic’s New York indictment to BehindMLM’s checklist of tracked instances. Keep tuned for updates as we proceed to observe the case.
Replace twenty third March 2021 – Efforts to extradite Krstijan Krstic from Serbia have hit a roadblock.