ABERDEEN, MS – U.S. Attorney Scott Leary announced today that two Corinth pharmacists have been sentenced for stealing almost $800,000.00 from the federal health care benefit programs Medicare and Medicaid. These prosecutions were part of the Trump Administration’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. This case was investigated and prosecuted by the Northern District of Mississippi, working in close collaboration with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
Ricky Wayne Quinn, 71, was a pharmacist and owner-operator of the “Medical Plaza at Alcorn, LLC” in Corinth, Mississippi. John Anthony “Andy’ Null, 56, was a pharmacist and long-time employee of Medical Plaza Pharmacy. Both pleaded guilty on an earlier date to Conspiracy to Commit Healthcare Fraud. Senior District Judge Glen H. Davidson sentenced Quinn to thirty months in prison and ordered both defendants to pay $786,972.10 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