Crypto Crooks

Big money. Big names. Big crimes. Cryptocurrency is a radical technology with incredible potential. The kind of potential that fraudsters and criminals can’t resist exploiting. We’re launching “Crypto Crooks” to dig into their schemes, in the hopes of protecting investors from getting taken in. We’ll explore how nefarious actors draw in victims, where their rackets start to unravel – and how their empires crumble, taking investors down with them. Listen carefully, and maybe you’ll be able to steer clear of Crypto Crooks.

Episodes

Consensus 2023 Panel: How to Spot a Scam

May 16, 2023 • 23 mins

Featuring “Crypto Critics’ Corner” hosts Bennett Tomlin and Cas Piancey, and former Terraform Labs employee Hyungsuk Kang. The past year saw the collapse of a huge variety of frauds, scams, and deeply flawed projects in crypto. Some of the most respected (and consistently correct) scam-spotters in the industry discuss how they identify red flags and dig into the nitty-gritty of uncovering malfeasance. We also meet a special guest –...

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Lunacy Episode 5: Between the Moon and Montenegro – Do Kwon Goes to Jail

April 18, 2023 • 28 mins

Time moves faster in crypto. So this week we’re back with a bonus episode on all the lunacy that’s gone down since February. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. We’d finished writing and recording this show by February 2023. But February and March were busy months for the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice and the authorities of Montenegro. They’ve all been going after Do Kwon. And they’ve a...

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Lunacy Episode 4: Our Twisted Hero

March 21, 2023 • 53 mins

In the season finale, we look at the man behind the curtain – and tease out just how many crimes he committed. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. Do Kwon has evaded, deflected and run away. But his empire’s crimes are like a trail of breadcrumbs, always leading back to him. In our season finale, we take stock of Do Kwon’s twisted legacy: the myriad crimes and deceptions he enacted, the system he built to prop them all up...

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Lunacy Episode 3: Legends of the Fall

March 14, 2023 • 46 mins

This week we delve into the underlying mechanisms of terraUSD and how they incentivized experienced investors to drive the stablecoin into a death spiral. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. Do Kwon wasn’t creating a new grift. His coin was history, repeated. Financial experts foretold the failure of Do Kwon’s empire from the beginning – because they’d seen it all happen before, at the Bank of England no less. In our deep...

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Lunacy Episode 2: Confidence Game

March 7, 2023 • 50 mins

This week we delve into terraUSD’s winners, its losers and the rules of the whole twisted game. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. TerraUSD and its so-called “ecosystem” were always a game – one only some investors realized they were playing. As we fall deeper into the death spiral, we look at the retail investors who were indisputable victims of Do Kwon’s scheme. Many of them lost life savings and even, ultimately, thei...

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Lunacy Episode 1: Death Spiral

February 28, 2023 • 51 mins

This week, we dig into the rise of Do Kwon, the enormous appeal of his almost magical algorithmic stablecoin – and the far less charmed reality underlying his machinations from the very start. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. Do Kwon said he could print money out of thin air. Who could resist a sell like that? Welcome back to “Crypto Crooks.” This season, over the course of four episodes plus a bonus fifth on recent de...

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Season 2: 'Lunacy, the Rise and Fall of Do Kwon' Podcast Trailer

February 14, 2023 • 2 mins

Welcome to “Crypto Crooks” Season 2: ”Lunacy: The Rise and Fall of Do Kwon." "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. Crypto's biggest names thought Do Kwon and his algorithmic stablecoin would take them to the promised land. But then terraUSD slipped from its dollar peg by just one cent. Everything unraveled. $60 billion, vaporized. Life savings, obliterated. A wave of suicides across the globe. And that was just the beginning...

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BitConnect Episode 4: Fraud Is a Flat Circle

January 31, 2023 • 27 mins

This week, in the last episode of the season, we look at the methodical, often slow progress of justice, and pull at one final thread: the ominous connections between BitConnect and India’s ruling party, the conservative BJP. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. BitConnect’s nefarious tentacles reached across the world. So did the impact of its downfall and the fates of its architects. In our season finale, we take stock o...

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BitConnect Episode 3: Technically, You Kind of Lost Your Money

January 24, 2023 • 32 mins

This week, we meet the online influencers who enticed victims into the BitConnect farce, and the pyramid-scheme model that allowed them to make millions doing it. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. It takes a village to scam the world. Or at least some YouTube channels. In the penultimate episode of “Crypto Crooks: BitConnect,” we talk to Scott Shaffer, who kept close tabs on the BitConnect team both before and after th...

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BitConnect Episode 2: Where Is Madeline Bigatton?

January 17, 2023 • 36 mins

This week, we explore the intricate interplay of events that led to BitConnect’s dramatic decline, and the case of the missing woman just left of center of the scheme. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. It takes a lot of concurrent factors to topple an empire – even a fraudulent one. As we continue the sordid tale of BitConnect’s rise and demise, we talk to early skeptic @BCCPonzi about the financial, technical and plai...

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BitConnect Episode 1: The Gujarati Connection

January 10, 2023 • 31 mins

This week, we dig into the rise of BitConnect, the strange kidnapping case that ultimately helped unravel the scheme and an important Texas Securities Commission cease and desist order. "Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis. BitConnect investors were on top of the world. Their investments were going up, up and up. The BitConnect token was making inroads around the world. It was almost too good to be true. Or rather, it was to...

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Season 1: BitConnect Podcast Trailer

December 19, 2022 • 1 min

$2.4 billion lost. Thousands of victims. Mysterious deaths. Untold misery worldwide. You know the name. You know the memes. But do you know the real story? Welcome to “Crypto Crooks” Season 1: BitConnect, launching Tuesday, Jan. 10 at 5 a.m. EST. Follow and subscribe to “Crypto Crooks” wherever you listen to podcasts. For our first season, we are focusing on easily the most notorious crypto scam of all – BitConnect. Between 2016 an...

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