Spain’s Guardia Civil found that wallets linked to the collapsed crypto platform Arbistar continued to move bitcoin after its accounts were frozen in September 2020, according to the report described in the excerpt. Investigators identified about 881 bitcoin sent to external wallets around the collapse. From January to March 2021, wallets linked to key defendants recorded combined inflows and outflows exceeding 20,000 bitcoin, valued at more than $1.1 billion using the bitcoin price on March 31, 2021; that transaction volume is not an estimate of investor losses.
Spanish authorities classified Arbistar as a pyramid scheme affecting up to 32,000 investors, with initial damage estimates ranging from $111 million to more than $220 million. The excerpt says founder Santiago Fuentes received a 16-year prison sentence, while asset tracing and a money-laundering probe continue.
