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Wybo Wiersma, a 40-year-old Dutch student at St Cross College, Oxford, will serve a 54-month jail term for robbery? 2,156,000 (over $2.6 million) using a cryptocurrency-based system.
UK detectives linked the scam to the man who used the pseudonym Norbert van den Berg in his malicious website and university coursework.
‘Greed and Dishonesty’ Behind the Scam
Judge Michael Gledhill KC ordered Wiersma to spend four and a half years in prison for his offense. The criminal began his cryptocurrency fraud by studying at the Internet Institute of St Cross College.
He created a website under an assumed name, which generated "seeds" (passwords that users thought were uncompromised). They were needed to use the miota, a cryptocurrency that currently has a market capitalization exceeding $620 million.
However, malicious code was attached to the "seeds", allowing wiersma to gain access to customer assets. He began stealing money and moved it to his accounts. Afterwards, the criminal converted the stolen miota into monero (xmr) with the help of bitfinex in January 2018.
The platform intercepted her suspicious activity and froze her accounts, demanding ID. Wiersma has provided forged passports—one from a Belgian resident and the other from an Australian man named Jason.
Bitfinex did not allow these documents, which encouraged the Dutch to use the services of Binance. The largest crypto exchange in the world has rapidly detected its plans, suspending its access to accounts.
A number of affected investors notified the German police of their missing assets in 2018. They co-operated with their British colleagues and launched an investigation that ultimately led them to Wiersma in Oxford.
Enforcement officers in the United Kingdom searched the place, saw his office computer open, and followed his activities in recent years. When asked about the website, he did not provide information and returned to the Netherlands for a brief period of time.
Nevertheless, the inspectors continued to work on the case and found that he was using the pseudonym norbert van den berg on the seed generator website and its academic courses. They also linked the moniker with a Bitcoin payout.
He was arrested by the Dutch authorities on Christmas Eve 2020 and sentenced more than two years later. In announcing Justice Gledhill's sentence, he said:
'As a computer expert... Actually, you decided to take advantage of your flying skills. It's dishonesty at the top. Why would you do that? Greed and dishonesty are the two easy words to think about.
Crypto Schemes in the UK
Such fraud has been highly popular in the United Kingdom over the past several years, and the market decline in 2022 did not halt the activities of bad factors. In fact, crypto scams increased by a third between October 2021 and September 2022.
David Lindberg – Chief Executive Officer of retail banking at NatWest – previously warned investors that the UK is a “paradise” for fraudsters. He urged the British government, the police, banks, and social media operators to join forces and thus cope with the issue:
“Fraud and scams are an industry. They're smart, they move quickly, and it's heart-wrenching to see how they're trying to destroy lives."
