BRYAN COUNTY, Okla. (KXII) – A Dallas man was arrested in Bryan County after he was allegedly found in possession of Fentanyl while attempting to defraud a Durant bank.
David Mendel, 52, was booked into the Bryan County Jail on Friday, March 27.
Mendel was given a number of felony charges, including:
- Make/sell/possess/display a false I-D.
- False pretenses/bogus check/con game
- Aggravated trafficking in Fentanyl
Court documents allege that on March 27, Mendel showed up at the First United Bank in Durant with another man’s I-D in an attempt to pull out $16,000 from the victim’s bank account.
Mendel was also found in possession of 7.93 grams of Fentanyl at the time of his arrest.
No information was released regarding how police were tipped off about Mendel’s fraud attempt.
Mendel is being held in custody at the Bryan County Jail. He faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
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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