MINNEAPOLIS – The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division), and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota announced a series of enforcement actions targeting fraud involving taxpayer-funded Medicaid and SNAP programs.
Between Sept. 30, and today, the Fraud Division and the District of Minnesota have charged, convicted, or sentenced 13 defendants whose alleged or proven schemes caused nearly $83 million in intended losses to the federal government, including approximately $29.1 million in fraud uncovered in the newly charged cases. This effort is a result of a partnership between prosecutors from DOJ’s Fraud Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. This year alone, the DOJ has issued over 1,000 subpoenas and executed over 40 premises warrants for the purpose of uncovering fraud in Minnesota.
“Minnesota is the epicenter for fraud in…
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