APPLETON (WLUK) — Construction contractor Jesse Van Boxtel pleaded not guilty Wednesday to fraud charges for allegedly stealing from customers.
Van Boxtel, the owner of Millennium Construction, faces six counts, including four of theft by contractor. The complaint says instead of paying subcontractors and suppliers, Van Boxtel was using that money for lavish purchases for himself, such as homes in Hawaii.
No trial date was set. A status conference was scheduled for May 13.
A motions hearing will be held April 24 on a related matter of funds currently frozen at a Green Bay bank.
Jesse Van Boxtel was charged in Outagamie County, but the criminal complaint lists victims in Brown, Door, Outagamie and Winnebago Counties. (WLUK)
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According to investigators, Van Boxtel was running a large Ponzi scheme, commingling money from multiple Millennium…
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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