In a world of thieves, this also happens. The funds stolen with the maxi crypto scams Uefa and others (CMG and Bapa also) ended up in the failed exchange FTX. The Uefa scammers were basically robbed by Sam Bankman-Fried and accomplices. Ironic. In particular, from the on-chain analysis in which Decripto specialises, we have identified over 240 million from wallets traceable to the Uefa maxi scam, ending up, and getting stuck, in FTX, just days before the bankruptcy.
Starting from the reports of many of our readers informing us about requests for money and suspicious attitudes, we started to follow some fraudulent wallets, studying the various movements on the blockchain. In fact, many in the community, after the Ponzis jumped, provided us with wallet addresses of victims and fraudsters and invited us to do on-chain analysis (like the one done for UEFA) for other scams, including CMG and Bapa.
Therefore, starting with the reported wallets, we started to follow the funds and discovered that several scams were interlinked. The suspicion was of course already there, but having to rely on the facts, we had to investigate deeper and here is the evidence. We discovered several links on the Tron blockchain that connect UEFA, Bapa and CMG. With the meagre consolation that a lot of this stolen money ended up in FTX before the bankruptcy and remained locked there, at least in part. But let’s go in order.
The links between the scams
Starting with UEFA’s wallets obtained from the previous investigation, we added CMG’s and then Bapa’s wallets. The links did not wait long to become apparent, making it clear that the wallets within the network were in common.
UEFA Football, CMG and Bapa sent the USDTs to the same wallets, then scattered the Ponzi proceeds across an endless network of addresses. In the image below, one can see the complex movements aimed at making the traces disappear, or at least the desire to follow them. In the centre are UEFA’s wallets, on the left those of CMG, at the bottom those of Bapa and, bonus, also those of a certain ‘Masterwave logistic’, proposed on Telegram by other rogues. As you can see, the network is very extensive, but thanks to specific software, we have managed to reconstruct it, at least in part.
The money stolen with Uefa ended up in FTX
As many of those scammed had hoped, not all the proceeds of UEFA’s scam will be available to the Ponzi organisers. Investigating the various wallets, over $240 million turned up, which UEFA had sent to FTX shortly before the exchange closed up shop. As if by an ironic twist of fate, the money of those defrauded by UEFA, after being put into a bogus and failed project, ended up in an equally failed exchange. In the end, the swindled may not be able to recover all the money they lost, but neither will the swindlers be able to use it.
The rest of the loot ended up on Binance and OKX
There is still a lot of money left over, many of the proceeds have in fact entered the various exchanges such as OKX or Binance, but have not yet exited, at least not via the blockchain. Many of the personal wallets on the CEX have in fact only received funds, although we cannot know whether they have been converted into FIAT currencies and withdrawn via wire transfer or withdrawal.
This is only known by the centralised exchanges; the Cex, like the banks, could and should cooperate with law enforcement agencies to identify personal wallet holders, given the compulsory nature of the documents required to open accounts on these exchanges.
These wallets include very large sums, in the tens of millions of dollars and in one case, over a billion. Funds that, however, ended up in the personal accounts of real people, though probably front men. Funds that in theory should set off some alerts in anti-money laundering analysis processes, especially considering that the KYC (Know Your Costumers) that the CEXs ask us for should have precisely this purpose.
Is it possible that millions of dollars arrive on these exchanges with individual transactions to individual addresses and nobody checks? Who earns these sums in such a short time (fraudsters aside)? Who is checking and investigating this huge flow of money and these gigantic criminal organisations?
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