In Spain, the owners of the Arbistar 2.0 crypto pyramid were sentenced to 8 and 6 years.

In Spain, the owners of the Arbistar 2.0 crypto pyramid were tried. Santiago Fuentes Jover, a Catalan entrepreneur who lived in Tenerife, was sentenced to 8 years for fraud and forgery. His partner, Diego Felipe Fernandez Nojarova, was sentenced to 6 years for fraud.

They ran Arbistar 2.0 – a platform that allegedly invested in cryptocurrency. With its help, they defrauded about 32,000 people of 200 million euros. They promised quick profits through a special computer program. But, as often happens, it was an ordinary financial pyramid.

The court ordered Fuentes Jover and Fernandez Nojarova to jointly pay compensation to almost 10,000 victims. They will be refunded the amount in euros equivalent to their bitcoins at the time of the verdict, but after deducting payments already received.

Four other defendants were acquitted. Venus Capital Trade, Venus Capital Real Estate and Venus Solar Group will also not be liable for the company's debts.

The court decided to confiscate all property seized during the investigation, including cryptocurrency, accounts and electronic wallets. The website www.arbistar.com/es, through which the fraud was carried out, will be closed forever.

Initially, the prosecutor's office demanded 18 years in prison for Fuentes and 14 years for Fernandez. But the court decided to limit itself to shorter terms for the two main perpetrators.

Arbistar 2.0 promised investors easy earnings on cryptocurrency. They offered a program that supposedly found favorable prices on various exchanges and automatically generated profits. The main product was the Community Bot, which was supposed to manage the money of thousands of users. They also sold expensive licenses and memberships in clubs that promised a stable income.

In reality, as the court established, it was an ordinary pyramid scheme. The money of new clients went to payments to old ones, and the profit was shown on the screen, although it did not exist. At first, the money could be withdrawn, which inspired confidence. But in September 2020, the platform closed, and people lost their money.

Arbistar 2.0 was backed by a network of shell companies that had different functions: attracting money, conducting transactions, and creating the appearance of legality.

In addition to Arbistar, the group created companies called Venus Capital, which allegedly invested in renewable energy and real estate. But the court decided that they did not conduct real activities, but only covered up fraud.

Arbistar promised ordinary people the opportunity to easily earn money on cryptocurrency without knowledge or effort. They promised a stable and high income, which was unrealistic.

On September 12, 2020, Arbistar announced a "technical stop" of the Community Bot. This meant that payments were stopped, and the pyramid collapsed. Thousands of investors lost their bitcoins. The investigation showed that the organizers simply took the money for themselves.