The press chief of Estudiantes de Río Cuarto, a second-division soccer team in Argentina, has vanished after allegedly swindling millions from the team using a crypto investment platform. Matías Centurión, the accused individual, disappeared without a trace on December 18 after being seen at a team event. Centurión had leveraged his position as press chief to promote Cryptodefi, an Ethereum-based decentralized finance platform offering attractive yields of 5% monthly to its investors. As a result, several soccer players found themselves with investments collectively exceeding a million dollars, which now seem to be at risk due to Centurión’s disappearance.
Initially, Centurión’s Cryptodefi seemed reliable, and he even managed to gain the trust of the entire team and its players by becoming a sponsor of the club, with the company’s name displayed behind the goals on the field. However, the situation took a turn for the worst in December as the club faced relegation and some players planned to depart for other clubs. Centurión reportedly encountered difficulties in returning the invested capital to his clients, leading to suspicions and concerns among those involved. Currently, the Attorney General’s office is actively searching for Centurión to hold him accountable for the alleged scam.
Unfortunately, cryptocurrency scams in Argentina have been on the rise, affecting thousands of individuals across the country. In recent times, there have been numerous cases of large Ponzi schemes that have devastated entire communities. These fraudulent platforms have even gone to the extent of using the likeness of soccer icon Lionel Messi to attract unsuspecting investors, creating deepfakes of the player in social media promotions. In response to this surge in crypto-linked scams, the Security Ministry of Argentina has included unauthorized financial activities involving crypto-assets to the list of activities that will be closely monitored and regulated by law enforcement agencies.
The Argentinian authorities have recognized the urgent need to combat these illegal activities in the crypto space, which have caused significant financial losses and damages to many individuals. The Security Ministry has outlined plans to actively patrol cyberspace in search of crypto criminals who engage in Ponzi schemes and other fraudulent activities. By tracking and surveilling such activities preventively, the goal is to protect citizens from falling victim to these scams and to hold accountable those responsible for perpetrating financial crimes. This proactive approach aims to safeguard the interests and investments of the public while fostering a more secure and trustworthy environment for crypto transactions.
