Croatian police have arrested Luka Burazer and Eugen Travalja, suspected of defrauding a large number of citizens who invested in and traded in cryptocurrencies. The three suspects were the director, procurator, and employee of a company in the Rijeka area. They are accused of misrepresenting and lying to a large number of clients, resulting in material damage estimated at at least 18.5 million euros.
The arrests occurred at their residential addresses and involved searches of their homes, personal cars, computers, IT equipment, and documentation related to the criminal acts. Cold wallets and devices were found during the search, and the investigation will determine the amount of investors deprived. The police have several experts trained on cryptocurrency scams and stated that there are about 250 injured parties.
The suspects founded a trading company with a premeditated intention to trade cryptocurrency. They persuaded people to invest through their company by buying various cryptocurrencies under the pretext that their value is increasing and the profit is high. They advised citizens to open their own crypto wallets or pay a certain amount to certain crypto wallets, drew up contracts, and over time, transferred the money to their crypto wallets, spent it, and returned part of the money to citizens to keep them in the wrong.
The suspects were interrogated at the Municipal State Attorney’s Office in Rijeka and should be brought before the investigative judge of the County Court in Rijeka. Most of the victims filed criminal charges against the owners of the now-defunct company BitLucky, as they had not heard from them since the end of May this year.