Serbian man extradited to Dallas to face charges in $70 million cryptocurrency scheme

Jack Howland

A Serbian man has been extradited to Dallas to face charges related to a far-reaching scheme where fake investment firms, headed by fabricated identities, duped investors around the world out of more than $70 million, the FBI announced on Friday.

Antonije Stojilkovic, 32, was arrested by Serbian authorities in July along with several other alleged co-conspirators in the plot, according to the FBI in Dallas. He consented to extradition, the agency said in a news release, and on Thursday was moved to the Northern District of Texas. If convicted, he and other co-conspirators could face up to 20 years in prison.

Stojilkovic and more than a dozen others were indicted by a Dallas grand jury on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, the FBI said.

The indictment describes how the defendants allegedly helped create more than 20 fake online investment platforms, with names such as Options Rider, Start Operations and Dragon Mining. The defendants, based in Serbia and China and elsewhere around the globe, are accused of targeting people for investments in so-called binary options and cryptocurrency mining, according to the FBI. But investors never saw returns.

“This $70 million scam spanned several continents, targeting American citizens and foreigners alike,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District Prerak Shah said in a news release. “We are proud to bring Mr. Stojilkovic to Dallas to face justice in an American courtroom. The U.S. Department of Justice will not relent in our fight against cybercrime.”

Many of the investors who were targeted were based in North Texas, according to the news release. The FBI’s Dallas field office led the investigation into the alleged scheme.

The fake binary options platforms were promoted as “the world’s market leader in binary options” that promised a typical payout of 80 percent and 20 percent refunds on every lost trade, the FBI said. Cryptocurrency platforms, on the other hand, were rife with claims that investors could “purchase bitcoin at half market price” due to “24-7” mining around the world.

The group of co-conspirators, according to the FBI, created identities — most of them women — to fill out the company’s employees and chair people, using fake names and photographs. They allegedly used fake names during video conferencing calls to further the ruse.

They told investors to wire money through an international bank account and gave them logins for an investment portal that was allegedly bogus, always showing positive returns on investments, according to the FBI. They’re accused of faking wire receipts, withdrawal history and trading activity, the FBI said. No actual trading took place.

Defendants allegedly used the funds to “cover defendants’ personal expenses, to pay commissions and to further the scheme,” according to the news release.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno said in the release it doesn’t matter whether it’s cash or cryptocurrency, investors should be cautious and report any suspicious activity to the authorities.

“The FBI is uniquely equipped to work with our offices and law enforcement partners worldwide to investigate and dismantle these elaborate schemes,” DeSarno said.

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