A Colorado Springs driving school was suspended last week after state investigators uncovered months of fraud, according to the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles.
Instructors at the Academy School of Driving marked answers for students on exams “to ensure passing scores,” cut state-mandated 15-minute driving tests to less than five minutes and charged applicants “illegal, exorbitant fees ranging from $550 to $600 for guaranteed results,” according to a DMV news release.
The privately owned “Certified Driving Education and Testing” school also submitted falsified data for the driving test routes and durations to the state DMV system and manipulated appointment availability to create demand, DMV officials said in the release. The driving school’s fraud, which began as early as March 2025, was first reported in November 2025, prompting a months-long investigation that remains…
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