Kathryn Walker will not appear on the Democratic primary ballot for Irondequoit Town Board having agreed to withdraw, facing allegations of filing fraudulent petitions.
Walker made the announcement Tuesday evening, resolving a court case brought by Joe Morelle Jr., chairman of the Irondequoit Democratic Committee and son of Congressman Joe Morelle. As part of his complaint, nine people whose names were on Walker’s petitions signed sworn statements that they either had not signed the petition or had signed other people’s names as well.
The agreement made in court would invalidate the petitions gathered by Walker, and the Monroe County Board of Elections would remove her name from the ballot.
Morelle Jr. had claimed almost half of the nearly 800 signatures Walker gathered were invalid, and nearly 100 were considered fraudulent. In order to get on the ballot, Walker had to gather 500…
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