Vitae Coin Founders Arrested Over Alleged Crypto Scam

Belgium authorities have arrested Vitae executives suspected of an alleged crypto scam that saw over 220,000 investors lose their money.

Seven properties were raided across East and West Flanders and Limburg. In addition, virtue currency totaling more than 1 million in Euros and luxury cars have allegedly been seized by Mendy Z. and Shrage P., the executives.

The Rise of Vitae Token Fraud

In early 2018 Vitae Token started as Vitae Coin. It was rapidly renamed and promoted by the Social Network as Vitae Token. In August 2020, Vitae Token became known to BehindMLM through Vitae Rain Chat. The founders ran Vitae through Vitae AG, a shell company incorporated in Switzerland through a PO Box.

Belgian authorities, according to HLN reports, confiscated on Tuesday 22nd Vitae Coin and its website domain. According to his Twitter bio, Vitae’s founder Michael Weber is based in the United States from Colorado. Vitae Token’s official Facebook page operated from the Netherlands is the only connection that you can uncover to Vitae and Europe. 

The HLN states that during presentations in Belgium and the Netherlands, it recruited victims. It is unknown if Vitae is being investigated independently in the Netherlands. However, the Belgian investigation was kept secret so that leaders and leading promoters of Vitae could not cash out before they were arrested and convicted.

Double Identity?

Although Michael Weber has gone by the name for years now, Weber is on Twitter and YouTube under “Michael Bradley.” In the BitConnect Ponzi system, Weber was a top earner. A few months after the fall of BitConnect in January 2018, Weber created the Vitae coin.

Recently, the SEC has been following several top US developers for BitConnect. Weber was not a named defendant. So it’s unknown what happens next. Three days before the Belgian conviction, the final Twitter message from Weber is dated June 19.

As Vitae’s founders, Weber has already reserved for the North American Blockchain Expo in September: in December 2019, Vitae Token abandoned Facebook. As a result, the last post on the coin’s official Twitter website is from April 9. 

Cryptocurrency Fraud On the Rise

With Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Ethereum continuing to increase in popularity—and prices—so do the digital currencies linked with online scams.

According to data from the Federal Trade Commission, Americans have lost to investment scams of over $80 million since October, a rise of 1 percent since autumn 2019. Persons aged 20-39 years were particularly affected, accounting for almost 44% of the losses reported, the FTC said.

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The FTC data also revealed around 7,000 reports that the agency had received a median loss of $1,900 from crypto investments since last fall. The losses occur as bitcoin prices rise and more people attempt to comprehend what is all about cryptocurrency.