BTCM is registered in November 2021 in the United Kingdom and the director is Chinese national Quin Yang (Quin Yang). The organization positioned itself as a bitcoin miner, promising investors daily returns of 5% to 8% of the deposit amount, Kenyan police assure;
Local law enforcers say that in less than four months about 11,000 investors from seven countries were involved in the scheme. One of the affected Kenyans said that he was invited to a WhatsApp chat room where the administrator collected funds from users. The investor put 7,000 Kenyan shillings (about $65) into the scheme and lost it. Another investor suffered a more substantial loss of 440,000 Kenyan shillings (about $4060). In both cases, the group’s administrator simply stopped contacting customers after the money was transferred.
This year, law enforcement agencies have already received complaints from Kenyans who invested in the Bitstream Circle cryptocurrency scheme. The amount of stolen funds is estimated at $10 million. Kenya is among a number of countries where cryptocurrencies are very popular among locals. Interest in digital assets is often exploited by malicious actors.
In April, Kenyan lawmakers proposed regulating cryptoassets on par with securities. Kenya recently started charging a 3% tax on the transfer and exchange of cryptocurrencies.