COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (WMC) – The Collierville Police Department has captured a man wanted in connection with a multi-state mail theft and identity fraud scheme.
Joshua Johnson, 36, is now being held at the Shelby County Jail. He is accused of traveling from state to state, stealing mail and packages and committing identity fraud.
The investigation began with a package theft in Kenner, Louisiana. Detectives in Kenner determined that the same suspect was tied to unsolved thefts and identity fraud cases in other states as they worked to identify the porch pirate.
Johnson was identified as the suspect due to an alleged “digital breadcrumb trail,” according to Kenner police.
Investigators tracked him to Collierville with the help of Flock cameras and other law enforcement agencies.
When located,…
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