Today, the Justice Department announced charges against 16 individuals in connection with illegal voting, illegal voter registration, and related election-fraud schemes across the country. The charges include unlawful voting by non-citizens in federal elections, false claims of citizenship to register or vote, and related offenses including wire fraud, naturalization fraud, passport fraud, and unlawful firearm purchases uncovered during the course of these investigations.
Case details are as follows:
Northern District of Texas
This week, eight aliens residing in Texas are facing charges for alleged unlawful voting.
- Moises Anwar Arellano?Alba, 36, an illegal alien from Mexico, was charged with final order of removal, has been charged with voting by an alien in a federal election and false statement of citizenship in order to register to vote.
- Nigerian national, Helen Sayen Adams, 67, a…
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