Deceptive Investment Platform Registered in the UK Attracted €415,000 from Residents of Plovdiv and Pazardzhik

Investment Platform That Defrauded Plovdiv and Pazardzhik Residents of €415,000 Is Registered in the UK, but Those Involved Likely Have Ukrainian or Russian Origins, Says Plovdiv Deputy District Prosecutor Plamen Pantov

The investment platform in which people from Plovdiv and Pazardzhik were defrauded of €415,000 is registered in the UK, but the individuals involved with it are likely of Ukrainian or Russian origin, Plovdiv Deputy District Prosecutor Plamen Pantov told journalists.

The man arrested on March 18 this year for the fraud has been placed under a preventive measure of detention.

He has been charged with large-scale fraud under the conditions of a continuing crime, which carries a sentence of one to eight years in prison. Work continues to gather evidence regarding the involvement of other individuals, additional victims, and the movement of money, the prosecutor noted.

There is no evidence that the man is an IT specialist. Since 2013, he has had no employment contracts in Bulgaria, but it has been established that he worked in Germany as a truck driver. The man has no other criminal records. With the money he earned, he purchased a luxury car and real estate in Plovdiv.

The scheme operated by the 47-year-old man in Bulgaria was active from July 20, 2022, to December 25, 2024. The investigation has documented 10 cases in Plovdiv, the villages of Tsalapitsa, Branipole, and Malo Konare, Stamboliyski, and Pazardzhik, in which the man defrauded private individuals of over €415,000.

He gathered small groups of people, among whom he promoted his activities, selecting attendees at his presentations from minority groups who had worked abroad. Among them was a 30-year-old man who invested $280,000, claiming its origin was from gambling.

The arrested man was a mediator for an investment platform for automated cryptocurrency trading. He convinced people that if they invested money, it would automatically be converted into cryptocurrency and they would receive around 15-20 percent monthly interest. An investment profile was created for each person wishing to invest, where they could track the movement of their money and accumulated profits on the fake platform. These amounts were visualized in users' profiles, where a fictitious growth of profits was recorded. However, these sums had no real value outside the platform, as their management could only be carried out by participants in the scheme.

Source: БТА