Two Romanian citizens, 20 and 26 years old, are accused of having fraudulently stolen almost half a million dollars worth of bitcoins from the owner of a real estate management company.
Those arrested are accused of creating a criminal organization and conspiracy fraud. The case file involves a third person who is alleged to be their accomplice and is wanted outside Greece, in cooperation with Interpol.
According to the case file, the arrested were introduced to a Greek businessman as potential buyers of real estate in Thessaloniki worth 2 million euros. By agreeing to the purchase, they asked the businessman to indicate the amount of 2.5 million euros as the price of the property in order to mislead their partner, according to what is described in the documents of the prosecution.
To make sure they didn’t lose their money, they convinced the victim to show them a digital wallet with $ 445,000 in bitcoins, which he would return to them after the purchase. During a meeting scheduled last Tuesday in a cafe in Thessaloniki, a businessman gave the couple a USB drive with codes to unlock a digital wallet, and then, according to the case file, a 26-year-old man allegedly magically replaced the stick with another, empty … With a USB stick and codes in hand, they disappeared and headed to Macedonia airport, where they were preparing to board a flight to Germany.
The businessman realized that he had been deceived and notified the police, who detained the foreigners before boarding the plane. They themselves, explaining themselves to the investigator, seem to have accepted part of the charges, but stressed that they themselves had become victims of fraud by their alleged accomplice. The flow of cryptocurrencies is being investigated by the Cybercrime Investigation Office of Northern Greece in collaboration with Europol.
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