Dutch financial crime investigators arrested a 26-year-old man on Monday on charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering linked to a rug-pulling scheme by Web3 gambling network ZKasino.
The Netherlands’ Financial Intelligence Unit (FIOD) said investigators searched the suspect’s home and seized various assets worth 11.4 million euros ($12.2 million), including physical and digital records, real estate and cryptocurrency. name today.
FIOD added that additional arrests involving ZKasino are likely in the future. The statement did not explicitly say how the suspect was involved in the project, but FIOD told The Block that he was part of the ZKasino team.
ZCasino, which started out as a decentralized gambling platform, suddenly changed its token redemption policy upon launch. This change left investors unable to reclaim the bridged Ether tokens the team had initially promised. At launch, over 10,000 investors had already linked over $33 million worth of cryptocurrency on ZKasino, which led them to claim: The project was rug pulling Scam.
FIOD wrote in a statement:Investors were told they would get their money back within 30 days, but that didn’t happen. According to authorities, the technical way in which the smart contract was set up on the blockchain also suggests that the return was not intended. “This could represent a method of operation called Rug Pull,” FIOD added.
The statement detailed that the suspect was questioned by a magistrate on Thursday and his detention was extended by two weeks.
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About the author
Danny Park is The Block’s East Asia reporter, writing about topics including Web3 development and cryptocurrency regulation in the region. He previously worked as a reporter for Forkast.News, where he actively covered the fall of Terra-Luna and FTX. Based in Seoul, Danny previously produced written and video content for media companies in Korea, Hong Kong and China. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Business Marketing from the University of Hong Kong.