"Scammers are always there, so investors should not neglect it if they want to invest somewhere."
Three professional Brazilian soccer players Gustavo Scarpa, Mayke Rocha de Oliveira and Wilian Bigode lost more than $5 million after investing in Xland, an alleged fake cryptocurrency company.
However, Xland denied the charges saying his company did not run a pyramid scheme and promised to reimburse the victims.
Even so, Scarpa, a Brazilian footballer for Premier League club Nottingham Forest and Mayke who plays for Brazilian Serie A side Palmeiras were found to have been pressured to join Xland as investors.
Reportedly, Scarpa who invested $1.2 million, Mayke $757,000 and Bigode $3.3 million filed a complaint with the police a few months ago when all his funds disappeared after Xland promised a 5% return every month.
The string, the chief investigator of the case named Vinicius Salva still claimed that Xland's operation was a pyramid scheme even though the company said that the investor's losses were caused by the fall of FTX that started in November 2022.
On the other hand, local authorities arrested Claudio Oliveira in 2021 including confiscating his luxury car and a number of funds following stealing 7,000 BTC from his clients and transferring the digital assets to his personal wallet.
While there is an investigation dubbed "Operation Poyais", where criminals not only stole a large amount of funds from victims throughout the year but also laundered digital assets worth $766 million.
