Sunday, January 23, 2022

The Brazilian town known as “New Egypt” because of the popularity of crypto pyramid schemes

AP:

With so many alleged pyramid schemes, Cabo Frio came to be known as the “New Egypt.” And as the town’s top dog [he] was dubbed the “Bitcoin Pharaoh.”

Police say [he] began trading in Bitcoin after leaving his job as a waiter in 2014. A one-time evangelical preacher in training, he enlisted clients from the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Brazil’s largest neo-Pentecostal group, who earned a referral fee for bringing in fresh recruits and kicking back money to G.A.S., police documents say.

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Rio state police have also linked two attempted killings to [him] and what they called his “extermination team.”

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Prosecutors have identified at least 27,000 G.A.S. victims