According to UK media reports, Elliot Gunton pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering outside the UK. He reportedly stole more than $900,000 from more than 500 Coinbase accounts when he was 17 and 18 years old. This information was included in the July 27 North Norfolk News report.

Gunton gained access to Coinbase accounts by redirecting logins to a fake website.

“This was a highly sophisticated crime and required significant planning and technical expertise,” Judge Alice Robinson of Norwich Crown Court said, according to a Norwich Evening News report of July 27.

This isn’t the first time Gunton has made headlines for the wrong reasons.

In 2019, he was sentenced to 20 months in prison for stealing personal data of TalkTalk customers; He stole this data in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency. However, he reportedly avoided prison time by completing a 12-month rehabilitation period.

He was also ordered to repay 407,359 British pounds (current value $524,700) by hacking several high-profile Instagram accounts. Meanwhile, in the United States, a federal court ordered Abner Alejandro Tinoco and his firm Kikit and Mess Investments to pay more than $31 million for conducting fraudulent cryptocurrency and foreign exchange transactions.

Tinoco is accused of a “Ponzi scheme”-like scheme in which it took investment funds from customers and offered “fake” profits to other customers. He tricked victims into thinking their funds were invested; whereas these funds were used to finance Tinoco’s lavish lifestyle, such as renting a private jet, living in a luxury mansion, and other real estate expenses.

Tinoco, Kikit and Mess were ordered to pay $6.2 million in restitution to approximately 200 defrauded victims, $6.2 million in repaid illegal proceeds, and $18.8 million in civil penalties.

The US commodities regulator said the civil penalty is nearly three times that of illicit funds obtained from fraudulent cryptocurrency and foreign exchange transactions.

The fraudulent schemes started in September 2020 and collected a total of $7.2 million from victims. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed enforcement proceedings against Tinoco and Kikit and Mess approximately 12 months later.

The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions has flagged a potential fraudulent crypto platform and advised investors to be careful.

DFI received a complaint from an investor who allegedly deposited crypto funds on investment platform Vims.One. Vims.One is no longer available.

DFI stated that Vims.One is affiliated with a “non-profit organization” called the Miami Foundation.

The victim claimed he was lured into a WhatsApp chat with people named “Mark” and “Alice” who promised investors returns of over 100% twice a week. Investors were asked to pay a 5% commission to withdraw funds from the platform, but the victim who spoke to DFI was able to get his funds back.

“We advise consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any offer offering investment or financial services,” DFI said. A man in Korea was arrested and charged for stealing more than $1.3 million (1.8 billion Korean won) by running a fake crypto mining business.

The alleged perpetrator, “Mr. A,” promised victims high profits. Mr. A is accused of fraud, according to E Asia Economy’s July 26 report.

Mr A is said to have operated the fake business between September 2021 and August 2023.

E Asia Economy stated that Mr. A has never done any cryptocurrency business, but promises high returns of 3-8% per month.

It was reported that Mr. A paid the new investment money as profit to the early investors, thus making the venture appear profitable, which is similar to a Ponzi scheme.