{"id":85809,"date":"2018-08-14T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T17:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=85809"},"modified":"2018-08-14T09:57:24","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T16:57:24","slug":"finnish-millionaire-loses-24-million-in-bitcoin-in-gambling-scam-linked-to-macaus-dragon-cofinnish-millionaire-loses-24-million-in-scam-linked-to-dragon-coinin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/finnish-millionaire-loses-24-million-in-bitcoin-in-gambling-scam-linked-to-macaus-dragon-cofinnish-millionaire-loses-24-million-in-scam-linked-to-dragon-coinin\/","title":{"rendered":"Macau\u2019s Dragon Coin Linked To Finnish Millionaire’s $24 Million Loss in Bitcoin Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Finnish crypto-millionaire has been scammed out of $24 million-worth of bitcoin by a Thai gang promising investment in Dragon Coin, the casino cryptocurrency launched by Macau\u2019s Dragon Corp.<\/p>\n

\"Dragon
The Thai actor Jiratpisit “Boom” Jaravijit is led away in handcuffs after police traced a portion of the money to his bank account. His brother, Prinya Jaravijit, is suspected of being the brains behind the operation. (Image: Samui Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As reported first by the Bangkok Post<\/em>, Aarni Otava Saarimaa, 22, claims he was approached by a group of people in June last year, offering investment opportunities in Expay Group, NX Chain Inc and DNA 2002 Plc and Dragon Coin. When his multimillion dollar investment disappeared into the ether, he contacted Thai authorities.<\/p>\n

There is no suggestion that Dragon Corp itself is in any way involved in the con — although it does involve a famous Thai actor, known as \u201cBoom\u201d to whom Thai police followed the money trail.<\/p>\n

Boom and Busted<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Police arrested Jiratpisit “Boom” Jaravijit, 27, at a filming location on July 26, after around $649,000 of the stolen money allegedly ended up in his account.<\/p>\n

They are also seeking Jaravijit\u2019s siblings, suspected ringleader Prinya Jaravijit, who has left the country, and Suphitcha Jaravijit, who has reportedly made contact with police. The Jaravits are expected to be charged with fraud and money-laundering.<\/p>\n

“This case is complicated. We had to carefully examine documents and trace the money trail,” Police Colonel Chakrit Sawasdee\u00a0said in a statement.\u00a0“For the money laundering charge, we are verifying the amount of money with commercial banks only in the accounts of the siblings and their family and relatives. The money needs to be frozen and brought back to the victims.”<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“When it is fraud, the complainants and the accused can talk and have arbitration. However, money laundering is a crime that cannot be bargained away,” he added.<\/p>\n

Feed the Dragon<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dragon Corp promised to \u201cintegrate blockchain into the world\u2019s biggest gambling hub\u201d by using Dragon Coin to undercut the amount traditional junket operators charge for transactions, which would make the currency popular with Chinese high rollers.<\/p>\n

\n

It launched an ICO<\/a> last year which raised over $500 million. Part of this money would go to building the Dragon Pearl, a $300 million floating casino that would be owned by investors in the currency.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But in June, the Norwegian company charged with building the Dragon Pearl, Brova Idea, said it had abandoned the project<\/a> last November due to repeated alterations to contracts and delayed payments.<\/p>\n

In July, Dragon Corp CEO Chakrit Ahmad blamed Brova Idea for the disruption and claimed the projejct would go ahead, but it may now become a land-based casino instead.<\/p>\n

In May of this year the director of Macau\u2019s Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau Paulo Martins Chan said that there are no plans to allow cryptocurrency transactions by licensed gaming operators in the gambling hub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Finnish crypto-millionaire has been scammed out of $24 million-worth of bitcoin by a Thai gang promising investment in Dragon Coin, the casino cryptocurrency launched by Macau\u2019s Dragon Corp. As reported first by the Bangkok Post, Aarni Otava Saarimaa, 22, claims he was approached by a group of people in June last year, offering investment […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":85812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24066,10,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFinnish Millionaire Loses $24 Million in Scam Linked to Dragon Coin<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Finnish crypto-millionaire Aarni Otava Saarimaa has been scammed for $24 million by a group of Thai people promising investment in the Dragon Corp\u2019s Dragon Coin cryptocurrency and other companies.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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