Edgar Adhemar Bacchiani, CEO of Adhemar Capital, a company based on a pyramid scheme with bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies based in Argentina, must appear for investigation on April 28, after being arrested last Friday.
Bacchiani and two other of his collaborators face charges for illicit association, money laundering, fraud and unauthorized financial intermediation. Although, according to Clarin newspaper, Bacchiani’s wife would also be involved in the event. This is Zaraive Garcés, of Venezuelan origin.
Bacchiani and his team are detained in the Catamarca Unit Division of the Federal Police. After the investigation, the court will determine how the legal situation of each accused continues. They do not rule out calling other people to testify in the coming days, Alfredo Aydar saidlawyer of a part of the victims.
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The company, based in the province of Catamarca, in northwestern Argentina, offered a 50% return to investorsby trading bitcoin, something that he could not maintain for a long time, as is often the case in this type of case.
The interruption in payments set off investors’ alarms and that unleashed a wave of complaints. Rumors about an investigation by the Argentine justice system had been heard since January, but these were dismissed by the companyat the time.
Citizens of several provinces fell into Bacchiani’s networks
Although the operations of the scheme were focused on Catamarca, the fame of the supposed benefits of the company caused it to expand to other provinces such as Tucumán and Córdobatowns where the company also opened offices, reaching as far as La Rioja.
In the case of La Rioja, the lawyer of a group of 68 people, participants in the scheme in that province, Cristian Mastking, said that based on the inquiries made by his law firm, they are close to 20 thousand people affected.
Until now, the total amount of funds handled by Bacchiani and his collaborators is unknown, but was made known that, for the month of February, two investors delivered to the platform USD 620,000 and USD 8,950,000, respectively.
According to the lawyer Aydar, in the province of Catamarca there were investments that reached USD 200 million. While in Tucumán between USD 60 and USD 80 million, and in Córdoba around USD 60 million, in total it is estimated that Adhemar Capital handled USD 400 million.
The Bacchiani lifestyle was one of opulence. In 2020 she founded Adhemar Capital and earlier this year showed luxury cars on their social media, one of those was a red Ferrari. “First backstage photo of my girlfriend She looks at herself and does not touch herself », she described on Instagram.
Last night, a local media reported that a group of those affected by the alleged scam they marched to claim the return of your funds. Until tried to break into Bacchiani’s home, but the police prevented them from doing so. “They are not going to have a life, until they return the last peso to us,” said one of the protesters.
Does Bacchiani have the funds?
Being cryptocurrencies, as in these cases, it is possible that they are guarded in a cold wallet. For some signs in a photo on Twitter they speculate that Edgar Adhemar Bacchiani has in his possession the cryptocurrencies of investors.
The theory that Bacchiani has possession of crypto assets was exposed on Twitter by Oswaldo Mendeleev (@BetoMendeleev_). Everything was born from some photos that were taken by the justice system at the time of Bacchiani’s arrest, in which you can see that he makes a couple of gestures with his hands.
«Special attention to the gesture with the hands. He points to his cell phone with one hand and with the other he makes the twine symbol, referring to the fact that the money of the victims is in cryptocurrencies there, “Mendeleev said.
It could be a recurring practice in this type of pyramid schemes. This was done by the Spanish Javier Biosca Rodríguez, CEO of Algorithms Group and accused of fraud. Today behind bars, Biosca assured that he has the funds to pay all those affected only if they withdraw the complaint, a fact reported by CriptoNoticias.
Another recent case with great international repercussion was that of Generación ZOE, a pyramid scheme based in Argentina, but which has spread to several countries in Latin America and Europe. The creator of the pyramid scheme, Leonardo Cositorto, was extradited to Argentina at the beginning of this month, where he is detained after being accused of alleged illicit association and fraud.
One of the countries that recently took action against representatives of Generación ZOE in their country was Venezuela and Spain, where something similar happened.