Braiscompany and other Brazilian cryptocurrency companies allegedly utilized pyramid schemes to trick Brazilian investors out of millions. Victims are seeking compensation for being deceived.
Several recent victims of fraud have come out to denounce 20 Brazilian cryptocurrency companies.
According to a survey published yesterday by the news program Fantastico, a total of 2.7 million Brazilian investors would have been defrauded of 100 billion reais (20 billion dollars) in pyramid schemes in six years. The survey included the testimonies of investors, including a world-champion Brazilian boxer, Acelino Popó, who fell victim to one of these scams run by Braiscompany.
Braiscompany describes itself on its website as a digital asset manager, and its mission is allegedly to promote financial freedom. Braiscompany promoted its company image and success in managing cryptocurrency assets via social media, through its account and the founder’s online presence.
The company’s founder and CEO, Antonio Neto Ais, was a key figure in the company’s social media outreach. Through his Instagram with 769,000 followers, Neto showed images of a luxurious and successful lifestyle, and regularly communicated with investors through livestreams assuring them of his expertise. Viewers were prompted by Neto to make investments by promises of high returns, one of whom was Acelino Popó.
In January, the company shut down all profit returns to investors. In February, the company ceased all operations due to a court order, and Neto posted a statement on Instagram on March 16th assuring that despite the court order they will remain firm, and blamed the company’s problems on the failure of FTX, a company that operated a cryptocurrency exchange and crypto hedge fund that is now bankrupt.
Braiscompany’s CEO and his family since moved to Argentina, thereby evading the order for their arrest issued in August.
According to this court order, approximately 400 million dollars worth of cryptocurrency has been transferred to Braiscompany’s accounts over the last four years, which is progressively being seized by the Brazilian police. One of the defendants in the case has been arrested in Argentina, where he is being processed.
Braiscompany is not the only company in Brazil taking advantage of the crypto market to deceive investors, as the Brazilian police are investigating 20 companies according to the survey.
One of these companies, GAS, allegedly obtained millions of dollars of cryptocurrency fraudulently and had a CEO, Glaidson dos Santos, who allegedly conspired to murder one of his competitors, according to an investigation by the public ministry and reported by Globo.
In August, GAS CEO, who became known as “the Pharaoh of Bitcoin,” was fined 34 billion reais and was declared unable to operate in the capital market for eight and a half years by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudulent operation of the securities market.