{"id":152285,"date":"2025-06-28T06:39:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T06:39:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-uco-places-a-canary-islands-cryptobro-linked-to-the-arbistar-case-at-the-center-of-a-pyramid-scheme-that-stole-over-460-million-from-15000-investors\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T06:39:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T06:39:01","slug":"the-uco-places-a-canary-islands-cryptobro-linked-to-the-arbistar-case-at-the-center-of-a-pyramid-scheme-that-stole-over-460-million-from-15000-investors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/the-uco-places-a-canary-islands-cryptobro-linked-to-the-arbistar-case-at-the-center-of-a-pyramid-scheme-that-stole-over-460-million-from-15000-investors\/","title":{"rendered":"The UCO places a Canary Islands ‘cryptobro’ linked to the ‘Arbistar case’ at the center of a pyramid scheme that stole over 460 million from 15,000 investors."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Unraveling the FX Winning Pyramid Scheme: The Rise of David Merino<\/h2>\n

The Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) of the Guardia Civil<\/strong> has identified David Merino as the central figure in a \u00a0massive pyramid scheme\u00a0 that has affected approximately \u00a015,000 investors\u00a0 across 30 countries through the crypto trading platform FX Winning<\/strong>. This case is now considered one of the largest financial frauds ever investigated in Spain, dwarfed only by the infamous Arbistar case<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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The Allegations Against Merino<\/h2>\n

Born in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in 1983, Merino has not been among the five individuals arrested recently under the orders of the \u00a0Audiencia Nacional\u00a0. However, he is a notable figure within the documentation related to FX Winning, featuring nearly \u00a0700 times\u00a0 in the UCO’s comprehensive report spanning 444 pages. Investigators claim he is both the “leader” and “ideologue” behind this criminal operation, focusing on conducting a \u00a0pyramid scheme\u00a0 linked to cryptocurrencies and laundering the illegally acquired funds.<\/p>\n

According to UCO, Merino has played a pivotal role, often from the shadows, employing various complex corporate structures, both national and international. His moves included intricate transactions with cryptocurrencies, which helped obscure his identity and control over the criminal organization. \u00a0“David Merino assumes leadership roles, often operating behind the scenes, utilizing diverse and intricate corporate structures and complex transactions,”\u00a0 the report states.<\/p>\n

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FX Winning: A Platform for Fraud<\/h2>\n

Merino was reportedly the \u00a0founder\u00a0, \u00a0director\u00a0, and \u00a0sole shareholder\u00a0 of FX Winning. This platform has potentially resulted in losses exceeding \u00a0\u20ac460 million\u00a0 for 15,000 investors from various countries, including significant populations from the United States, Mexico, Argentina, and even Australia. In Spain alone, the UCO indicates that around \u00a0500\u00a0 individuals have already reported complaints against the platform.<\/p>\n

The UCO describes Merino as the \u00a0“brain”\u00a0 of the entire scheme, the individual responsible for both the formation and execution of the scam, as well as the subsequent laundering of the funds generated by the fraudulent activities originating in 2020. One of the most pressing questions posed by the report is: \u00a0Why hasn\u2019t he been arrested?\u00a0 While this remains somewhat unclear, it\u2019s suggested that Merino has evaded capture by \u00a0relocating to the United Arab Emirates\u00a0, particularly Dubai, known for its lack of cooperation in international law enforcement matters.<\/p>\n

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Complexity and Evasion<\/h2>\n

Notably, Merino is believed to have established FX Winning in \u00a0Hong Kong\u00a0, where it was registered on April 7, 2020. He officially resigned from the company by July 2021, yet investigators maintain that he continued orchestrating activities from behind the scenes through a complex web of companies such as We Are Turbo, MAM, The Secrets Tours, and The Billion Enterprises. Reports suggest that he has received more than \u00a04,000 bitcoins\u00a0 and in excess of \u00a0\u20ac3.3 million\u00a0 in bank transfers connected to the fraudulent operations, with these assets currently hidden from authorities.<\/p>\n

In addition to the ongoing investigation by the Audiencia Nacional, Merino is facing other legal challenges. The UCO asserts he has \u00a0open civil cases in the United States\u00a0 due to FX Winning’s activities, which also included operations in Florida.<\/p>\n

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Connections to Other Crypto Scandals<\/h2>\n

The Guardia Civil links Merino to several other \u00a0crypto scandals\u00a0, including the notorious \u00a0Algoirithms Group\u00a0 and primarily to Arbistar, which is considered the largest cryptocurrency fraud investigated in Spain, amounting to \u00a0\u20ac1.9 billion\u00a0 and affecting \u00a032,000 individuals\u00a0. Despite not attending the trial that concluded with a sentence prepared in June, sources from the UCO claim he has ties to Arbistar, having been listed as one of its founders and a CEO on its old website.<\/p>\n

Like Arbistar, which operated out of \u00a0Tenerife\u00a0, FX Winning established its base in the Canary Islands, specifically in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Merino’s hometown. Investigators believe that FX Winning may represent a more sophisticated iteration of Arbistar, citing links and similarities in their operational tactics.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the UCO postulates that David Merino has adeptly evolved and refined the workings of FX Winning, utilizing his prior experiences from other scams to establish it as his method of livelihood. It remains to be seen how the legal landscape will unfold as authorities continue their attempts to piece together this convoluted web of deceit and financial manipulation.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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General News – 2<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unraveling the FX Winning Pyramid Scheme: The Rise of David Merino The Unidad Central Operativa (UCO) of the Guardia Civil has identified David Merino as the central figure in a \u00a0massive pyramid scheme\u00a0 that has affected approximately \u00a015,000 investors\u00a0 across 30 countries through the crypto trading platform FX Winning. This case is now considered one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23832],"tags":[29930,37786,36852],"class_list":["post-152285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-finance","tag-economia","tag-guardia-civil","tag-uco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152285\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/teknomers.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}