From Nigeria to the US: crypto and forex fraud cases

Here’s a round-up of today’s top news stories relating to cryptocurrency fraud and foreign exchange fraud.

Nigerian lawyer protests innocence in forex fraud case

A lawyer from the city of Lagos in Nigeria has protested her innocence after she was accused on social media of having gone to jail in relation to a forex fraud allegation.

Ifeyinwa Morah told a local press outlet that claims she stole from the forex trading company she worked for were not true.

Instead, she claims, the cash she was paid by her firm was actually just commission – and that this makes sense because she was paid on such a commission basis anyway, rather than as a salaried employee.

In the interview, she said that those she worked with were responsible for framing her for the alleged crimes.

“It was transferred in escrow; it was supposed to be for me to hold it in escrow pending when the final determination of the accounting system was done”, she said by way of explanation.

“But the other boardroom members who were unfortunately a couple ganged up against me and said I stole the money from the company.”

CFTC hits alleged crypto scammer with judgement

A regulator in the US has called for a default judgement to be laid at the door of a man who allegedly scammed cryptocurrency investors in the country.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) wants Blake Harrison Kantor – who is also known as Bill Gordon – to be hit with a final default judgement.

Kantor has long since been accused of crypto crimes.

He is accused of soliciting traders using a range of methods, including everything from phone calls to an allegedly fraudulent website.

He operates a binary options system, which is known in the crypto world for being a notoriously trader-unfriendly system – and even an inherent scam.

As part of the system, he supposedly asked customers to transfer any proceeds in their binary options account to a crypto coin.

It is alleged that he committed the fraud as early as 2014, and that it could even be continuing right up the present day.

Overall, he is accused of having scammed six or more people to the tune of $618,810 in total.

Former Russian ice hockey player imprisoned over crypto fraud

A former leading ice hockey player in Russia has been sent to prison for a month over claims that he participated in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme which totalled more than $800,000.

Igor Musatov claimed that the court case had arisen due to confusion, and that he was in fact on the verge of demonstrating his own innocence.

However, the courts declined this interpretation, and instead sent him to prison for a month.

Musatov formerly played for the Slovakian side HC Slovan Bratislava – which is a member of the Kontinental Hockey League.

However, he has now been imprisoned according to reports from TASS, which is the Russian news agency.

The case was heard in Moscow.

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