Spanish Police Nab Alleged €260M Crypto Fraud Kingpin – ‘Investors’ Left Holding the Bag
Another day, another crypto scam collapses under its own greed.
Spanish authorities just cuffed the mastermind behind a €260 million investment Ponzi—proving even ‘sophisticated’ fraudsters can’t outrun Interpol forever.
The scheme promised moon-shot returns (sound familiar?). Instead, it delivered a masterclass in old-school grifting with a blockchain veneer. Victims bought into the hype; regulators bought time. Now the house of cards folds—with retail investors, as always, left sweeping up the rubble.
Funny how these ‘genius’ fraudsters always forget the first rule of crypto: the blockchain never forgets. Or forgives.
Meanwhile in traditional finance, bankers sip champagne while approving the 47th bailout this year. But sure—crypto’s the wild west.
- The Spanish authorities have arrested Romillo, the mastermind behind Madeira Invest Club, after discovering the pyramid-style scam operation he ran that caused investors to lose $300 million.
- The Madeira Invest Club lured over 3,000 investors across Europe and Latin America with false promises of 20% annual returns.
A few hours ago, local news uncovered how an investment scheme managed to successfully scam over 3,000 investors across different nations. So far, the reports recorded that the brain behind the scam has been arrested.
How The Scam Investment Platform Operated For Years
The scam operation was known as the Madeira Invest Club, and according to the reports, more than 3,000 investors were scammed across Europe and Latin America. Basically, the scam operators managed to sell their products to investors by promising annual profits of up to 20%, and they pushed investors by lying that the 20% profit WOULD be gotten through reliable investment contracts.
It was during the investigations that the officials found out that they created their entire scam setup on a pyramid-style scheme that was just designed to trick investors out of their savings.
During the time when the investment scheme operated, it positioned itself as an investment community platform that was interested in bringing in exclusive access and opportunities for individuals to invest in different valuable assets like real estate, crypto, and other financial instruments.
But instead of doing that, this scam platform collected money from new investors and then used that money to pay those who had invested earlier on. So as the older investors saw that they were making consistent profits, they began to encourage more people to join the scheme. The platform managed to run for a few years, but just like it was expected, the platform crashed a few years later, causing investors to have massive losses.
Also, when the scam platform was in operation, Romillo, the owner of the platform, and his team relied very heavily on influencers, large-scale marketing campaigns, and tiered membership packages that made investors believe they were actually part of something elite and secure. All together, the victims ended up losing a combined amount of about €260 million (about $300 million).
So far, the Spanish authorities, led by the elite Central Operational Unit (UCO), have arrested the group’s leader, Romillo, after carrying out a long investigation. The officials described him as a high flight risk, which is why he was immediately detained when he was caught in order to prevent him from escaping the country.
