The Yancheng City Court in Jiangsu province, China, has sentenced 14 organizers of the PlusToken cryptocurrency pyramid. The South China Morning Post reports this.<\/p>\n
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Key participants received prison terms ranging from two to 11 years. They were also fined between 120,000 and 6 million yuan.<\/p>\n
Launched in spring 2018, the PlusToken pyramid operated as a cryptocurrency wallet. It offered monthly returns of 10-20% and a referral program.<\/p>\n
In June 2019, users began complaining about withdrawal issues. In August, police detained six wallet founders on suspicion of fraud. At the time, losses were preliminarily estimated at $3 billion.<\/p>\n
In July 2020, Chinese police arrested<\/a> 27 main suspects and 82 key members of the group. At that time, the losses had risen to $5.8 billion.<\/p>\n In September, the Xiangshui County prosecutor’s office filed<\/a> charges of organizing and running a fraudulent scheme against six PlusToken founders.<\/p>\n Earlier in November, Chinese authorities sold<\/a> $4.2 billion worth of cryptocurrency confiscated during the investigation.<\/p>\n