Major bitcoin fraud case rattles Egypt
Hundreds of Egyptians were swindled by an international crypto mining company, raising controversy over the digital currency that has grown in popularity in cash-strapped Egypt.
CAIRO — Egyptian authorities have succeeded this month in partially unraveling one of the largest cases of online fraud in the country to date by arresting the members of a network that established a fake digital currency platform and deceived thousands of people into readily handing over their life’s savings.
The network was made up of 29 people, including 13 foreign nationals, according to the Egyptian Interior Ministry.
They established the fictitious HoggPool crypto mining platform and lured users by promising them high returns for their investments, stealing 19 million Egyptian pounds ($615,000) from them, the ministry said in a statement released last week.
It noted that the members of the network rented a villa in Cairo and used it in operating the platform, before suddenly shutting it down and disappearing.
