Argentine crypto scam suspect arrested in Venezuela after ‘escaping with $56m in Bitcoin’

Venezuelan police have arrested Rosa María González, one of the suspected masterminds behind Generación Zoe, an Argentine crypto scam that left tens of thousands of investors out of pocket to the tune of at least $120 million.

The scam’s masterminds offered investors returns of up to 7.5% on their stakes.

Police in San Cristóbal, in the Venezuelan state of Táchira, apprehended González almost exactly a year after the scam’s kingpin, Leonardo Cositorto, was jailed for 12 years in Argentina.

Cositorto told investigators González had fled with 611 Bitcoin, worth $56 million after Generación Zoe collapsed in mid-2022, the Argentine newspaper Clarín reported.

“Hopefully, she will tell the truth, and we can recover the [investors’ lost] money, because we were left with nothing,” an unnamed source close to Cositorto told Clarín.

Crypto-related crime is on the rise globally, with a South Korean plastic surgery chief using crypto to embezzle customers’ payments and a mass address poisoning attack targeting Ethereum wallets.

“Quantum security” features

Generación Zoe promised investors massive returns, claiming to use market-predicting bots and its own gold-backed cryptoasset.

Investigators discovered it was actually a Ponzi scheme, with older investors paying “dividends” drawn from newer investors’ stakes.

González reportedly introduced Cositorto to the idea of using trading algorithms that she had created. She claimed the algorithms featured “quantum security” features and “could generate returns of up to 70% per month.”

“It’s the most advanced crypto trading algorithm out there,” she told would-be investors in a video. “It doesn’t exist anywhere else. But we have it right here.”

After evading police detection in Buenos Aires by using private security firms, González reportedly fled to Venezuela. From there, she reportedly worked with associates from her time at Zoe on a new scam project, according to the newspaper.

González allegedly sent one individual money so he could quit his job and dedicate himself entirely to the new project.

The new scam, Clarín wrote, involved promising Argentine investors 5% monthly returns on stakes of at least $1,000, with investors paying for their stakes in crypto.

González reportedly wanted to tell investors about the launch of a new platform, also powered by trading bots, this time purportedly developed by companies based in the UK.

Repatriating González will not be a simple process, Interpol officials told the newspaper. Diplomatic relations between Caracas and Buenos Aires were effectively severed in July 2024, following Venezuelan elections that Argentina’s government called “fraudulent.”

Tim Alper is a News Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at [email protected].