Spanish authorities have arrested Vitor Fajardo

Fajardo has been dubbed “one of the biggest cryptocurrency scammers in Europe”.

On December 2nd Spain’s Civil Guard conducted raids of Fajardo’s Valencia headquarters.

As reported by El Pais on January 2nd;

Several bank accounts and the web pages for accessing the platform and the pages where it was advertised have been blocked, as well as the confiscation of various documentation and electronic devices (computers, tablets, mobile phones and USB wallets. cryptocurrencies).

Likewise, 13 vehicles have been blocked and another seven intervened, all of them high-end, with a total blocked assets, between vehicles and bank accounts, of more than two and a half million euros.

The 2.5 million euro figure represents what has been seized. Fajardo’s total haul and investor losses are still under investigation.

The criminal case against Fajardo (right) is being conducted by Spanish authorities with the assistance of Europol.

If you’ve never heard of Vitor Fajardo you’ve also probably never heard of his Ponzi scheme DXRCoinTrade.

Fajardo’s “DXR” companies began in 2017 with DXR3200, a failed real-estate offering.

DXRCoinTrade launched in late 2018 and promised investors 2.5% a week. There might have been a reboot in 2019:

It appears DXRCoinTrade went through a few iterations, namely DXR3200 Investments and AutoDXR.

DXR3200 Investments’ website went live on or around December 2020. AutoDXR’s website domain was registered in February 2021.

Authorities shut down DXRCoinTrade’s website on or around December 7th, a few days after Fajardo’s arrest.

DXR3200 Investments’ website is still online. AutoDXR is down (may have been hosted on the same server as DXRCoinTrade).

Authorities cottoned onto Fajardo’s Ponzi scheme following a victim complaint made last August.

The victim sought the help of a private detective, after investing 150,000 euros in DXRCoinTrade.

She’s been cited as one but I’m not 100% clear on whether the woman actually is a victim.

Journal de Negocios reports she personally recruited ‘top clients, from businessmen, celebrities and journalists, to a well-known arbiter of football’.

Sounds like she was a promoter, who probably made her money back in commissions.

In any event, that complaint lead to authorities tracking down additional victims across Spain and Portugal.

DXRCoinTrade was also promoted in Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Spanish authorities investigated and confirmed Fajardo was running a Ponzi scheme.

Working with Europol, Spanish authorities learned of an earlier investigation in Portugal.

Portuguese victims filed complaints with local authorities, who eventually shut the case without taking action.

Portuguese victims report being threatened with defamation proceedings when they approached Fajardo directly.

In addition to the thirteen seized cars, Fajardo used invested funds to maintain “a high standard of living by buying high-end vehicles, trips or meals.”

Seven additional luxury cars belonging to Fajardo have yet to be recovered.

Looking at Fajardo’s history, it appears to be your classic “running Ponzi schemes is more profitable than investing in them” trajectory.

Fajardo began his Ponzi career with TelexFree:

A month after Fajado’s status update above, the SEC filed fraud charges against TelexFree.

Parallel criminal proceedings revealed TelexFree was a $3.6 billion dollar Ponzi scheme.

After TelexFree Fajardo reinvented himself as a crypto bro. On Facebook he refers to himself as a “consultor bitcoin”.

It didn’t take long for Fajardo to transition to crypto fraud, starting with BitClub Network.

The DOJ filed criminal charges against BitClub Network’s founders in 2019, alleging it was a $722 million Ponzi.

In 2016 Fajardo launched NWTI, a short-lived ecommerce scam.

Circa 2017 Fajardo signed on as an iMarketsLive promoter.

The CFTC fined iMarketsLive $150,000 for fraud in 2018.

Fajardo moved from Portugal to Spain in 2019.

Following his arrest, Fajardo was brought before a Judge. He has been released on bail and, at time of publication, there are no further updates.

Seems a bit bone-headed to release a crypto Ponzi scammer with potentially millions in unrecovered assets.

Whether Fajardo sticks around or does a runner remains to be seen.