Spanish police arrest suspected cryptocurrency scammer in Lithuania

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA)- Spanish police said on Tuesday that they have arrested “one of the biggest cryptocurrency con artists.”

An investigation into a crypto scam related to the HOLDLIFE token led police to nab a young Latvian man who has been wanted by the US since 2015 for fraud.

The alleged scammer had been living lavishly on Spain’s Costa del Sol under a false identity since 2020.

Spanish police accuse him of making off with more than €500,000 ($563,165) after convincing at least 1,000 investors to send crypto payments to the HOLDLIFE platform.

The system promised to pay HOLDLIFE holders a commission on every transaction made with the token. It was also promoted aggressively on social media.

“We are building a token that is here to stay with great plans ahead,” reads a Reddit post that was advertising a private sale for the project five months ago.

But instead of making investors money, Spanish police say those behind the project performed a “rug pull” at the end of June — a malicious maneuver common in the decentralized finance ecosystem where developers abandon a project and run away with investors’ funds.

The funds, and possibly funds from other scams, were allegedly used to fund his opulent lifestyle on the sunny Spanish coast.

“He and his companions lived in luxury villas that cost €1,000 per day, they rented exclusive cars and spent [large] quantities of money in designer clothing stores and at the best Costa del Sol restaurants,” a police statement said.

Despite the opaque accounts used in the world of blockchain, police were eventually able to trace the ties to the suspect’s account, although he was operating it with false documentation.

They then tracked him down in one of the “most exclusive” neighborhoods in the Costa del Sol and verified that he was connecting to the WiFi of his luxury villas to transfer the funds that he stole to his own account.

Once his true identity was discovered and it emerged that he was also wanted by Interpol, Spanish police “activated all the mechanism of internal police cooperation” and eventually arrested him in Lithuania.