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Four former executives of a Waterloo, Ont.-based firearms distribution company face a slew of charges after a complex, multi-year investigation into an alleged scheme that used fabricated invoices and financial records to get tens of millions of dollars in financing.
“It is believed that the fraud proceeds were used for personal gain, including the purchase of luxury items and properties,” said Det. Const. Mike Payne of Waterloo Regional Police Service’s Commercial Fraud unit.
Police allege Trigger Wholesale Inc. defrauded Oakville-based commercial lender Clearflow Commercial Finance of approximately $48 million between 2016 and 2020 through forged documents and…
THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025