Arbistar crash: thousands of Ukrainians lost their savings due to the crypto pyramid scheme.

At the height of the pandemic, I was contacted by representatives of a platform that united victims of fraud. They invited me to a meeting. After a few meetings, they said that they had spoken with various lawyers and decided to hire me because they liked my approach. That's how I started working with them.

I started in the city of Arona, where it all began. Gradually, people joined us, and eventually there were almost 1,800 victims.

Santiago Fuentes, the main organizer, admitted on television early on that there could be around 32,000 victims. That's when we began to understand the scale of the problem. At first, there were many clients from abroad, but then Spaniards who were able to come to Tenerife and verify what they were being told on YouTube also joined. And indeed, according to the court's decision, there were about 90,000 users and about 33,000 victims. Approximately 9,000 people filed lawsuits.

But to confirm that a person was indeed a victim, evidence is needed. Although there is a stereotype that only educated people deal with Bitcoin, this is often not the case. These are people who were simply told, "You can get a bigger profit here than anywhere else." And they took a risk. In addition, everything took place on the Arbistar platform, and after it was shut down, it became impossible to obtain any documents. There were cases when people could not prove that they were victims and could not file a complaint.

Arbistar had very aggressive marketing. First of all, they had a physical office in a prestigious area of Tenerife, with a chic interior. And they also had a channel where they held online conferences every week, where they talked about their successes. Their slogan was: "With the community bot, you never lose, you always win." Friends told how they made a profit, and people invested money. They threw lavish parties to which they invited the biggest investors. And Santiago Fuentes is a natural orator, you take his word for it. I understand why people trusted them, because they did everything very professionally.

After the pandemic, when everyone was sitting at home, many suffered financially and decided to try to earn money. But Arbistar had nothing to pay its users because it never engaged in cryptocurrency arbitrage. It was an ordinary financial pyramid. When everyone started withdrawing money en masse, they couldn't cope. At first, they said there was a problem with the accounting, then they made up other excuses, until they blocked the community bot and stopped paying.

It all depends on the country. For example, in Venezuela or Argentina, Bitcoin is a way to save money from inflation, and these investments could mean the opportunity to buy food for a whole week. In Europe and Spain, people invested to buy a house, pay for their children's education, or provide for their retirement. They invested all their savings there. Many people called and said that they had nothing to eat, that they could not feed their children, because they had invested everything in Arbistar.

It all depends on the point of view. They are accused of aggravated fraud, forgery of documents, and organization of a criminal group. The charge of organizing a criminal group was dropped because only two people were convicted. Fraud is also not considered aggravated, because, allegedly, it has not been proven that there were people who invested more than 50,000 euros. Therefore, they were given the maximum term for fraud - six years. And for forgery of documents - two years. In total - eight years. Diego Felipe is accused only of fraud, because it is believed that all the documents were made or ordered to be made by Santiago Fuentes.

This is exactly the point that we asked to be clarified in the court decision, because they were acquitted in two lines, without any motivation. There are transcripts of WhatsApp conversations with Santiago Fuentes, which show that these people were aware of everything until the very end. They directly talk about the need to find money to calm people down, that they will put pressure on certain people to invest. We believe that they played a key role, because they were the ones who convinced clients that everything was fine.

Initially, the prosecutor's office demanded compensation in euros, citing previous decisions. In addition, they demanded that the victims be returned what they had invested. But people invested back in 2018 or 2020, when Bitcoin cost 12,000 or 13,000 euros. And now it costs almost 100,000. Private prosecutors, who worked together because they understood that it was more profitable, decided to demand compensation in Bitcoin, and as an alternative - in euros, but at the rate at the time of the decision or execution. And we achieved this! This is a victory, because it is already a significant step forward compared to previous decisions.

Yes, it sets a precedent. Previous decisions were unfair, because Bitcoin in 2020 is not the same as Bitcoin in 2025. There was no justice, and the fraudsters were winning.

Yes, it's a copy of Arbistar.

Previously, there were ordinary frauds, and now - the Internet. It was proven in court that they were converting Bitcoins into euros to live the high life: buying expensive cars, villas, branded clothes, traveling. They didn't deny themselves anything. According to experts, when they closed the platform, the Bitcoins from Arbistar disappeared, and this is what is now being investigated as money laundering.