Florence, 120 million euro cryptocurrency fraud: precautionary measure for former BitGrail administrator
Prohibition of business activities and to hold the executive offices of the Company, that the protective order against FF, former managing director of BitGrail a platform for exchange criptovalute ( exchange ) .
According to the preliminary investigation judge Dr. Gianluca Mancuso, the 34-year-old Italian is allegedly responsible for a computer fraud of 120 million euros, fraudulent bankruptcy and self-laundering.
An investigative investigation started in February 2018 conducted by the Florence Compartment, with the collaboration of the financiers on duty at the Florentine Public Prosecutor's Office, after the same FF had filed a complaint concerning the theft of 120 million euros in NANO cryptocurrency (formerly RaiBlocks - XRP) made by exploiting a bug in the NANO protocol that allowed several illicit transactions carried out in January 2018.
For the investigators, the statements made by FF during the complaint for the "theft suffered" were conflicting and contradictory, so as to induce them not to exclude his active involvement in the affair.
After months of investigative activities coordinated by the Postal Police and Communications Service of Rome with the support of the FBI, and thanks also to the interception and computer analysis activities on the databases of the exchange platform , the involvement of the former BitGrail administrator emerged. .
The investigations carried out by the investigative departments have shown that the illicit theft of cryptocurrency, which began in June 2017, took place on several occasions and that FF voluntarily did nothing to prevent them by avoiding the installation of the updates published by the Nano Developers Team which would, of done, fixed the bug.
His conduct allowed hackers, not yet identified by investigators, to steal 11.5 million XRB equivalent to about 120 million euros, damaging over 230,000 people worldwide. A conduct considered even more serious as FF was also the Operator of the system.
It should also be remembered that users to purchase XRB Nano, in the period 1 December 2017/28 February 2018, moved and paid Bitcoins for a value equivalent to 593,527,000 euros, this inflow was matched by an increase in FF commissions.
Three days before the filing of the complaint, the former BitGrail administrator had transferred to his personal account at the digital currency exchanger company "The Rock Trading Srl" in Malta as many as 230 Bitcoin cryptocurrencies, which in that period corresponded to about 1 , 7 million euros.
A sum that FF, in May 2018, had partially transformed into legal currency by converting it into the sum of 514,690 euros through trading operations. In the following weeks he had also tried repeatedly to make withdrawals in an attempt to "empty" his account.
The timely intervention of the Public Prosecutors had allowed the seizure of all the accounts in the name of FF including the results in cryptocurrency up to the equivalent of 120 million euros.
According to the preliminary investigation judge Dr. Gianluca Mancuso, the 34-year-old Italian is allegedly responsible for a computer fraud of 120 million euros, fraudulent bankruptcy and self-laundering.
An investigative investigation started in February 2018 conducted by the Florence Compartment, with the collaboration of the financiers on duty at the Florentine Public Prosecutor's Office, after the same FF had filed a complaint concerning the theft of 120 million euros in NANO cryptocurrency (formerly RaiBlocks - XRP) made by exploiting a bug in the NANO protocol that allowed several illicit transactions carried out in January 2018.
For the investigators, the statements made by FF during the complaint for the "theft suffered" were conflicting and contradictory, so as to induce them not to exclude his active involvement in the affair.
After months of investigative activities coordinated by the Postal Police and Communications Service of Rome with the support of the FBI, and thanks also to the interception and computer analysis activities on the databases of the exchange platform , the involvement of the former BitGrail administrator emerged. .
The investigations carried out by the investigative departments have shown that the illicit theft of cryptocurrency, which began in June 2017, took place on several occasions and that FF voluntarily did nothing to prevent them by avoiding the installation of the updates published by the Nano Developers Team which would, of done, fixed the bug.
His conduct allowed hackers, not yet identified by investigators, to steal 11.5 million XRB equivalent to about 120 million euros, damaging over 230,000 people worldwide. A conduct considered even more serious as FF was also the Operator of the system.
It should also be remembered that users to purchase XRB Nano, in the period 1 December 2017/28 February 2018, moved and paid Bitcoins for a value equivalent to 593,527,000 euros, this inflow was matched by an increase in FF commissions.
Three days before the filing of the complaint, the former BitGrail administrator had transferred to his personal account at the digital currency exchanger company "The Rock Trading Srl" in Malta as many as 230 Bitcoin cryptocurrencies, which in that period corresponded to about 1 , 7 million euros.
A sum that FF, in May 2018, had partially transformed into legal currency by converting it into the sum of 514,690 euros through trading operations. In the following weeks he had also tried repeatedly to make withdrawals in an attempt to "empty" his account.
The timely intervention of the Public Prosecutors had allowed the seizure of all the accounts in the name of FF including the results in cryptocurrency up to the equivalent of 120 million euros.
