Turcoin - a $211M fraud, founders left the country

One of the biggest cryptocurrency projects in Turkey has turned out to be a giant fraud scheme, with its founders Mehmet Aydın and Sadun Kaya leaving the country. The press notes that the participants were promised with big investment returns each month (250 Lira), which is usually a good indicator of a Ponzi scheme. The total sum of attracted investments makes $211 million or $1 billion in Turkish lira.

The promotion campaigns included the car giveaways for some initial investors to further increase the trust of the public, this part of a fraud scheme has likely made the sum of stolen funds as big as it is. Reports also tell about the endorsement from the local celebrities. If this fact is true, they have seriously damaged their reputation.

Muhammed Satıroğlu is the partner of Hipper Inc., a company directly connected to the whole scheme. Unlike Kaya and Aydın, he did not leave the country and even promises to return funds to investors once the authorities unlock his bank accounts. It is very likely that soon he would become subject to the criminal investigation, or already gained this status judging by the fact that his accounts are frozen.

The project shares many properties with OneCoin, a fraud scheme which masqueraded as a cryptocurrency enterprise. The difference here is that OneCoin was international and the law enforcement of very different countries has made large efforts to erase its presence. In this case, criminals targeted Turkish audience.