The Headline. The US Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has joined other federal law enforcement agencies in placing a “whole-of-government” focus on combatting benefits fraud against the federal and state governments. In a March 30, 2026 Healthcare Fraud Advisory (Advisory, FIN-2026-A001), FinCEN urged financial institutions to be vigilant in detecting, preventing, and reporting fraudulent activity targeting governmental healthcare benefits programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. FinCEN also identified 24 new, healthcare-focused “red flags.” Although the Advisory is directed to financial institutions, non-bank clients in the healthcare sector can derive important guidance from the Advisory’s analysis.
The Background. While certainly not a new federal priority, the Trump Administration has recently upped federal efforts to prevent and punish…
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