The press chief of Estudiantes de Río Cuarto, an Argentine second-division soccer team, vanished without explanation, leaving claims of millions of team scamming under a crypto investment programme.
Alleged mastermind Matías Centurión apparently left on December 18 during a team event. Shortly after, he deleted all of his social media accounts, shocking the team and numerous players since their investments—totaling more than a million dollars—were under danger.
By pushing Cryptodefi, an Ethereum-based distributed finance platform with a 5% monthly payout, Centuries has developed trust with the team. The platform even started sponsoring as its logo was clearly seen behind the goalposts. He first made the promised payouts, most likely supported by fresh investors joining the programme.
But financial problems started developing in December, right in line with the team’s second division demotion and certain players considering moves to other teams. Legal action was started when Centrión allegedly neglected to reimburse the invested money. The Attorney General’s office is looking actively for him after starting an enquiry.
Ponzi schemes affecting whole communities have led Argentina to see an increase in bitcoin-related scams. Fraudsters even luring victims in October used deepfakes of soccer legend Lionel Messi.
Aiming to stop more fraudulent activity, Argentina’s Security Ministry has stepped up monitoring illegal financial schemes including cryptocurrency-assets in response to the mounting threat. As crypto frauds are proliferating around the nation, this example emphasises the critical requirement of awareness.
