KINSTON, N.C. (WITN) – A Kinston woman is facing charges in Illinois after police say she redirected thousands of dollars from dozens of people to her bank accounts.
Police in Goodfield, Illinois, launched an investigation in November after a woman reported that someone had redirected approximately $8,300 of her paychecks to unknown bank accounts.
Police learned through search warrants that the accounts contained additional deposits from more than 30 victims totaling around $39,000.
Laylah Blount was identified as the suspect during the investigation.
Goodfield police traveled to North Carolina on March 30th and served a search warrant at Blount’s house with Kinston police.
Officers found Blount at the home and seized several electronics.
The 19-year-old was arrested and charged with aggravated identity theft, theft over $500 and fraudulent use of electronic transmissions.
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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