CRYPTO CROOKS: BitConnect Episode 3 – Technically, You Kind of Lost Your Money

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CoinDesk

Business News, Daily News, News, Tech News

4.7 • 698 Ratings

🗓️ 24 January 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we meet the online influencers who enticed victims into the BitConnect farce, and the pyramid-scheme model that allowed them to make millions doing it. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. It takes a village to scam the world. Or at least some YouTube channels. In the penultimate episode of “Crypto Crooks: BitConnect,” we talk to Scott Shaffer, who kept close tabs on the BitConnect team both before and after the collapse on his YouTube Channel, “Crypto Jedi.” He watched a series of charismatic, powerful YouTubers invite viewers into their pyramid scheme, getting richer with every fish they caught. And ultimately, he watched their greatest coup of all: turning their victims … into scammers themselves. Clips: BitConnect Annual Ceremony 2017 What happened to Carlos Matos and Bitconnect? TREVON JAMES: MY FINAL BITCONNECT RANT! THE TRUTH About BitConnect, CryptoNick, Trevon James, and Craig Grant - Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, Web3 companies, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and business intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com. - “Crypto Crooks” is a CoinDesk Podcast Production. The executive producer is Jared Schwartz, with additional production by Eleanor Pahl, Rob Mitchell, Nora Battelle, Jonas Huck, and Moon Beast. Fact-checking is by Amber Von Schassen, and sound design and music are by Altus Noumena. This show is written and voiced by David Z. Morris. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:50.0	Crypto Crooks is sponsored by Chainalysis, the leading blockchain data platform.
1:10.1	Like most true stories and most scams, it's hard to say exactly when BitConnect's $2 billion fake crypto scheme began, or exactly when it ended.
1:21.4	Maybe it started when Satish Kambani thought up a crypto-inspired Ponzi scheme. Maybe it started with the invention of Bitcoin.
1:29.2	Maybe it started all the way back with the rise of the modern financial system.
1:33.8	As for where it ended, maybe when the Texas State Security Board issued a cease and desist
1:39.6	order against BitConnect, or when BitConnect's organizers disappeared with investors Bitcoin.
1:45.7	Or maybe, it won't really end until authorities finally tracked down alleged founder Satish Kumbani
1:51.8	and put him on trial. But for at least one man, the BitConnect story is definitely still not over.
1:58.8	Hey, hey, hey, hey, story is definitely still not over.
2:26.9	Once again, that's once again, that's Carlos Matos, giving his legendary cheer at the October 2017 BitConnect celebration in Thailand.
2:35.5	Carlos provided the most indelible moment in a jam-packed evening, featuring not just a parade of upbeat pitchmakers, but also incredibly elaborate musical numbers and dance routines that bathed the BitConnect
2:40.7	faithful in grand declarations, frenetic rhythms, and hypnotically flashing lights. Carlos Matos and his infectious cheer are the most lasting remnant of the BitConnect saga,
	...

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