TLDR
- Wallets tied to Arbistar moved more than 20,000 bitcoin between January and March 2021.
- The transfers were worth over $1.1 billion at the time and about $1.6 billion today.
- About 881 bitcoin was sent to outside wallets as the platform collapsed in September 2020.
- Arbistar affected up to 32,000 investors and promised weekly returns of about 28%.
- Founder Santiago Fuentes Jover was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Spanish police say digital wallets tied to the failed crypto platform Arbistar moved more than 20,000 bitcoin after the company collapsed. The transfers were worth over $1.1 billion at the time.
The findings come from a new Guardia Civil report, according to Teneriffa News. The report adds new details to Spain’s long-running case against the platform.
How the Arbistar Scheme Fell Apart
Arbistar was run by its parent company, Arbicorp, from southern Tenerife. In September 2020, the firm suddenly froze investor accounts.
The company blamed a “failure” in its automated crypto trading bots. Before the freeze, it had promised investors weekly returns of around 28%.
Once the accounts were frozen, investors could no longer access their funds. Many had joined believing the bots would trade crypto for steady profits.
The scheme drew in victims across 30 Spanish provinces. It also reached investors in Mexico, Venezuela, France and Andorra.
Spanish authorities later classified Arbistar as a pyramid scheme. They said it affected up to 32,000 investors.
Early estimates put damages between $111 million and more than $220 million. In 2020, Spanish prosecutors also said roughly $1 billion in investor funds was unaccounted for.
Bitcoin Transfers Under Investigation
The new Guardia Civil report shows how digital assets were moved to hide the trail of funds. Investigators found that about 881 bitcoin was sent to outside wallets as the platform collapsed in September 2020.
Much larger transfers followed months later. Between January and March 2021, wallets linked to key defendants recorded inflows and outflows totaling more than 20,000 bitcoin.
Those coins were worth more than $1.1 billion based on Bitcoin’s price on March 31, 2021. The same amount would be worth about $1.6 billion today.
Authorities said the funds went to people within the administrators’ inner circle. They said there was no legitimate business reason for the transfers, which points to an effort to hide assets.
The money tracing is running alongside criminal cases that have already reached the platform’s leaders. Founder Santiago Fuentes Jover and partner Diego Fernández Nojarova were prosecuted for aggravated fraud.
They also faced charges of document falsification and membership in a criminal organization. Both were sentenced after their initial trials.
The Appeals Chamber of Spain’s Audiencia Nacional later increased their prison terms. Fuentes received 16 years, while Fernández Nojarova received 11 years.
Several people have now been formally named in an ongoing money-laundering probe. Spanish authorities say they are still working to track the full crypto network tied to the defunct Tenerife company.
