Dutch Police Arrest Suspect in $30 Million ZKasino Crypto Gambling Scam

As part of an investigation into ZKasino, which is set out as a decentralized gambling platform, Dutch police have taken into custody a 26-year-old man. Authorities detained the suspect on April 29 on suspicion of fraud, embezzlement, and money laundering.

According to a May 3 report from the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), digital data carriers were found during a search of a house as part of the investigation. Numerous assets, including real estate, a high-end vehicle, and several cryptocurrency currencies valued at over 11.4 million euros ($12.2 million), were seized by Dutch authorities. The suspect was brought before a magistrate, and in order to conduct further investigation, his custody was extended by fourteen days.

The investigation is centered on a massive fraud related to the alleged gaming website ZKasino. Victims have invested over $30 million in cryptocurrency on this gambling platform worldwide.

On April 25, criminal investigations were launched in response to information from the FIOD's intelligence departments and reports found on Platform X, formerly known as Twitter. Following suspicious activity on the ZKasino platform, the public voiced their outrage, which led to the arrest.

ZKasino advertised itself as a blockchain casino and gambling platform. It was promised to investors that they would receive their money back in 30 days. That was not the case. The technical configuration of the smart contract implies that this return was not intended. This may point to a technique known as rug pulling.

In a rug pull, a project comes to an abrupt end, and frequently the developers dump or sell a sizable portion of the tokens, which drives down the share price. After that, the developers vanish with the money from this dump, leaving investors with tokens that are either worthless or extremely small.

The report stated that FIOD collaborated closely with the Financial Crime Compliance and Investigations Team of cryptocurrency exchange Binance during the investigation, which helped secure millions of euros' worth of cryptocurrency.

In March, Zkasino raised 10,515 ETH from investors. Over 10,000 people visited ZKasino's $ZKAS token bridge prior to its launch.

But when the team shifted all of the ETH to a Lido staking account and changed the text on their website, suspicions were raised. Security analysts warned of a possible rug pull, but the ZKasino team dismissed these concerns as baseless and said the project would go live despite strong criticism.

Following his arrest, FIOD stated in the report that in order to return the millions that were deposited by the victims, it is technically necessary for users who have been victims of this scam to cooperate and contact them via email at fiod.beccar@belastingdienst.nl.

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