In Europe, a €645 million medical cannabis fraud scheme was exposed

 In Europe, a large-scale fraudulent scheme related to investments in medical cannabis has been exposed, and nine suspects have been arrested.

This is reported by Eurojust, Ukrinform reports.

"Two related criminal organizations that advertised the scheme on the Internet and laundered profits, estimated to be around 645 million euros, have been dismantled. As a result of coordinated actions, nine suspects were detained," the message reads.

In Germany, France and Spain alone, more than 4,500 victims have filed formal complaints against fraudsters who have set up a crowdfunding platform to collect at least €50 from each investor to grow medical cannabis, it said. In fact, the cannabis plants were never purchased, even though the scheme's organizers pretended to work with legitimate and licensed businesses that would grow them.

The fraudsters were active from at least January 2020 to July 2022.

The scheme was pyramid-shaped and promised extremely high returns on investment. Investigations in Germany, Spain and other European countries found that investors were only partially paid.

Most of the money invested was used to pay affiliates, keep the scheme running, and expand the scale of the fraud with large online campaigns. A network of international companies was used for this purpose and to launder income. The scheme was apparently run by a Russian criminal network linked to an affiliated criminal group based in Germany.

Victims in Germany and Spain claim to have lost at least 51.5 million euros, with a total investment estimated at around 645 million euros.

In total, about 550,000 participants worldwide, mainly in Europe, were registered as online investors. About 186,000 participants transferred funds either in cryptocurrency or through a bank.