30s Summary

Five individuals involved in a crypto scam dubbed the EXW Wallet have been sentenced to jail in Austria. The group defrauded 40,000 investors out of around $21.6 million, splurging the stolen money on luxury displays of wealth such as private jet rides and a shark tank in Bali. The trial marked the largest of its kind within the country. The scheme promised a daily return on investment to participants through the fraudulent EXW crypto token. Some of the convicted are considering challenging their sentences, while others involved in the scam remain at large.

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Five people are headed to jail for swindling $21.6 million in a crypto scam, and guess how they splurged their loot? Well, on a shark tank, private jet rides, flame sessions, and a luxury ride – no kidding!

In all, these crooks scored a neat $21.6 million (about 20 million euros) from roughly 40,000 investors who fell for their scams like the EXW Wallet and the EXW crypto token, according to an Austrian source.

The breakdown of jail time? Two collared five-year sentences, two got 30 months, and one landed 18 months in the slammer. Five got away while some are still playing hide-and-seek with the law.

The trial that took place at the Klagenfurt Regional Court was monumental – the biggest of its kind in Austria.

The crooks truly lived it up, as if they were in a movie; partying at high-end Dubai clubs, zipping across cities on private jets, and even shelled out on a shark tank in some villa that they’d reportedly scooped up in Bali.

Over $100,000 also went towards flame sessions, as one report suggests. Money was clearly no object for these high rollers!

The operation was mainly from Dubai, but they often couriered the conned cash to Austria – their home ground – packed safely in plastic bags.

The initial charges against eight people involved in the EXW scam were filed back in September 2023 by Austrian prosecutors. More felonies followed, but the no-take-back policy between Austria and the United Arab Emirates was a bit of a speed bump. Still, while some defendants handed themselves in, others decided to leg it.

One of the founders of the EXW Wallet, Benjamin Herzog, pled guilty last December. Now, some of the convicted from the recent verdict are considering challenging their convictions.

The scammy EXW Wallet launched in late 2019 promising EXW tokens a 0.1% to 0.32% daily return on investment but crashed a few months later in 2020. And if that wasn’t enough, some of these same dudes are under investigation for another fraud case linked to cannabis where a reported $17.2 million is said to have been hoodwinked from 17,000 victims!

Source: Cointelegraph