Following an investigation that began in 2016, Norwegian authorities have laid charges against four Crypto 888 Club Ponzi scammers.

As reported by DN on February 7th, the accused are:

  • Terje Hvidsten (right), aka Aleksander Romanov – convicted serial fraudster who is already in prison since early 2024 on separate criminal charges
  • Dag Haetta Eriksen, aka Dag Verner Eriksen – another serial fraudster with prior convictions
  • an unidentified 52-year old from Romerike “who calls himself a craftsman” – charged with laundering 306 million kroner through a Hong Kong shell company (~$27 million USD)
  • an unidentified 70 year old former lawyer – charged with assisting Crypto 888 Club scammers launder 768 million kroner (~$69 million USD)

BehindMLM reviewed Crypto 888 Club in 2015, correctly identifying it as an MLM crypto Ponzi built around “octacoin”.

Crypto 888 Club was fronted by Hvidsten’s alterego Aleksander Romanov.

Romanov was presented as a gaming tycoon who owned “over 1000 betting shops and three casinos, mainly in eastern Europe”.

In January 2016, Hvidsten’s ex-wife turned up in BehindMLM’s comments to claim;

Terje Hvidsten has been in jail 9 times in Norway and Germany, he lives in Ski, Norway.

Last year he got 5 years in prison for children abuse and Freud/business scam. He will start his new sentence later this year.

He together with Dag Verner Eriksen (also been in jail several times in same scam case/freud as Jarle Thorsen), use a criminal lawer [sic] ; Petter Forsberg to money laundering/transfer the money around the world.

It’s highly probably Petter Forsberg is the unnamed arrested former lawyer but at time of publication this remains unconfirmed.

As to the unidentified “52-year old from Romerike”, a BehindMLM reader tipped me off to Pål André Børsting Berntsen.

Business records reveal Berntsen registered himself as a craftsman from Ullensaker in 2023. Ullensaker is part of Romerike.

Berntsen was also born in 1972, making him 52 if he hasn’t had his birthday this year.

Pertaining to the Norwegian criminal charges, a BehindMLM reader cited Berntsen as Crypto 888 Club’s Chief Operating Officer in 2016.

Additional Scandinavian fraudsters of note who promoted Crypto 888 Club include Frode Jorgensen (far left) and Rocco DiBenedetto (far right):

Jorgensen, currently running the Daxio Ponzi scheme from the Philippines, and DiBenedetto joined Crypto 888 Club after their Bidify Ponzi scheme collapsed.

By late 2016 Crypto 888 Club had collapsed twice. BehindMLM documented a third reboot as Nano Club in September 2016.

Nano Club collapsed in late 2017, prompting a fourth reboot as Nano Crowd.

Prior to the Norwegian Crypto 888 Club arrests;

Norwegian authorities claim “several thousand” documented Crypto 888 Club victims are primarily from China, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Total Crypto 888 Club victim losses are pegged at 968 million kroner ($87 million USD), a significant amount of which remains unaccounted for.

The indictment states that Hvidsten has had 72 million kroner at his disposal. Of this, Økokrim believes he has withdrawn 57 million kroner, of which around 11 million was used to transfer to prepaid Mastercards for himself and others.

He has also used part of the proceeds to buy an apartment in Spain and several cars, including a Range Rover.

In addition, Hvidsten is said to have used part of the money to pay off personal debts and make payments to family.

According to the indictment, the former lawyer received 8.6 million kroner for his services, while the 52-year-old from Romerike received 12 million kroner, which he is accused of having transferred in so-called self-laundering.

The Crypto 888 scammers have pled not guilty with the case “scheduled for Oslo District Court in September”.