European Union Parliament Considers Petition for Crypto Fraud Victims Fund

The European Union (EU) Parliament is considering a petition filed by a consortium of individuals, organizations and companies that seeks to establish a restitution fund for victims of crypto fraud.

The EU Parliament has announced that they are considering a petition submitted by a consortium of crypto fraud victims. The objective of the petition is to seek for the establishment of a restitution fund for victims of crypto fraud.

The victims represented by their lawyer, Dr. Jonathan Levy, have suffered losses exceeding €40 million and like tens of thousands of other crypto crime victims worldwide have been unable to recover their funds through law enforcement, national regulatory authorities or the courts.

In the petition, Dr. Levy urges the European Parliament to act directly to help the victims of crypto-active crimes as part of its EU strategy for the creation of a genuine single market for digital financial services.

The petition has been submitted to the EU Parliament—with the EU indicating that it will institute EU wider regulation of crypto assets to be phased in by 2022. Under the current EU rules, there are no provisions for victims of crypto crimes which usually range between fraud, extortion, money laundering, and cyber attacks.

The EU projects that the annual losses to individuals, organizations, and companies as a result of crypto-related crimes are in the billions of Euros and constitute a “massive transfer of wealth to organized crime firms.”

According to the EU announcement, the consortium of victims includes: disabled and elderly victims being preyed upon by crypto scammers posing as brokers. An American investor whose crypto wallet was hacked and nearly 1000 Bitcoins sent to a criminal operation; and, companies and individuals from Europe, America, Africa, Asia, and Australia who were deceived into investing in fraudulent crypto-asset funds, nonexistent crypto mining operations, and deceptive ICOs by seemingly legitimate companies registered in England and Germany.

The consortium also includes victims of some of the more notorious crypto Ponzi schemes like OneCoin, as well as numerous offshore online casinos and FOREX platforms that use crypto to evade AML and consumer protection laws.