Three British crypto scammers must repay $30M in three months or face 14 more years in prison. The gang exploited a CoinSpot glitch in 2017, funding lavish lifestyles before being caught.
British thieves who were jailed for taking cryptocurrency were given a harsh choice: pay back $30 million within three months or spend another 14 years in prison.
The scam started in 2017 when James Parker found a bug in the Australian cryptocurrency exchange CoinSpot that let him take out a lot of money without being caught.
Parker died before he could be charged, but three of his friends—Stephen Boys, Kelly Caton, and Jordan Robinson—made a lot of money off of the mistake.
They went to jail two years ago for moving money, and now a judge has told them to pay CoinSpot so that they can’t make money when they get out.
Surprisingly, Bitcoin‘s rising value has already made CoinSpot whole. They have a balance of $3.6 million that they have given to the British government, courts, and police.
During their trial, the gang’s lavish lifestyle came to light. For example, they gave expensive Amazon gift cards to strangers, bought cars for people they knew at the pub, and even bought a villa from Russian friends with a suitcase full of cash. The police also took away expensive watches, cars, and other things.
The investigation began when the founder of CoinSpot hired a private detective to find the mastermind behind the scheme. Parker, who lives in Blackpool and is jobless, was on welfare before he took advantage of the bug and made a lot of money.
Lancashire Constabulary said the case was “extremely challenging,” but they said the order to seize the goods was a big win. The Crown Prosecution Service and the cops worked together to look at the assets of the three people, making sure that justice was done.
