Since mid-September, Arbistar 2.0 announced a failure in its cryptocurrency arbitration platform, which prevented investors from accessing their funds. Given the concern of investors, the company assured that it would return the funds to those affected, although it now appears that it has no intention of doing so.
Arbistar 2.0, an arbitration platform with cryptocurrencies, based in Tenerife, Spain, recently announced in its defense that the company's limitation of liability clause, which investors signed when subscribing to the platform, exonerates the company from any liability if services were interrupted or affected by any force majeure event.
“The company does not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free, and will not be responsible for any delay or failure to fulfill its obligations if the delay or failure is due to a case of force majeure or events beyond the reasonable scope” .
With these words, some 120.000 families can confirm that they are facing one of the largest pyramid frauds in Spanish. Its CEO, Santi Fuentes, maintains that it is not a Ponzi scheme or a pyramid scheme, but rather a computer failure that they have to resolve to continue the company's operations. However, Fuentes remained "in hiding" for several weeks, without revealing his whereabouts "for security reasons." Likewise, the company's unfulfilled promises to begin refunds to investors since September 15, within a period of 12 months, are further evidence that reveals the true intentions of the arbitration firm.
So far, several research firms point out that losses The investors' claims are between 100 and 500 million euros, while the Tenerife police have already begun to carry out the relevant investigations.
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Arbistar Bitcoins on the darknet
Tulip Research, a research company that is tracking several of the transactions and movements carried out by Arbistar 2.0, claims that it found a suspicious transaction in Bitcoin (BTC) coming from the company. According to Tulip Research, this address was used to pay 274 investors on the platform in 2019, and also to receive a transaction of 11.917 BTC. The firm discovered that these BTC were distributed to 18 accounts that are linked to Hydra Market, one of the most famous darknet black markets in Russia.
Tulip Research's investigation indicates that Arbistar is linked to Hydra's DNM, which claims to have more than 3 million active accounts worldwide, of which about 400 are recurring customers. A study carried out by Project claims that Hydra Market is the largest black market in Russia and is a world leader in the sale of all types of illicit goods, ranging from medicines to piracy.
Likewise, Proekt reveals that this market processes more than 100 thousand daily transactions that are carried out in cryptocurrencies. And, although for many this information may seem of little importance or insubstantial, we must not leave behind Santiago Fuentes' wandering past on platforms similar to Arbistar, many of which also turned out to be a pyramid scam.
A dark past
Santi Fuentes, who presents himself as a qualified investor with extensive experience in the world of cryptocurrency investments, leaves a lot to think about for those who know of his past practices and adventures. The CEO of Arbistar start in the business world in 2013 as a distributor of branded infusions Organ Gold. Then in 2014, he became one of the main investors in the project Global Unity. This project, led by Ming Xu, was linked to WCM777, a Ponzi scheme based in California. Both projects faced accusations from regulators in multiple jurisdictions, causing Xu to withdraw from the project stating that he was "neither a shareholder nor responsible for WCM777 or Global Unity."
After the closure of this scam, by the United States Securities Exchange Commission, Xu was arrested and charged with fraud. Meanwhile, Fuentes, who received a heavy fine for violating the United States Securities and Exchange Act, decided to undertake another project: MoneyBox TV. This platform advertised huge profits to its investors through multi-level marketing, offering digital products and attracting more investors through a referral program. Soon, MoneyBox TV ended up resulting in another Ponzi scheme, which collapsed like a house of cards.
After this career, Santi Fuentes launched himself into the creation of arbistar, whose automated bot “failed” blocking investor funds. Many Arbistar users' money simply disappeared, and the platform claimed it did everything it could to control the damage. The alleged failure of Arbistar gave rise to the recent arbistar 2.0, which was presented as a renewed, safer and more reliable platform for cryptocurrency arbitration. The story of Arbistar 2.0 is the one that is currently developing, with the blocking of 100 million and 1.000 million euros, according to Tulip Research and other research firms.
The affected
Knowing Fuentes' unethical trajectory and deducing the company's intentions, those affected by the blocking of Arbistar 2.0 began to file a class action lawsuit against Arbicorp, the company responsible behind Arbistar 2.0. Several lawyers are already preparing their cases to take them to court. In relation to this, Carlos Aranguez, a lawyer preparing one of the complaints, argues that the Arbistar 2.0 case is not a risky investment, but a carefully planned fraud.
“We are not facing a risky investment, but rather a pyramid fraud because there are no assets.”
For Aránguez, the investments of users affiliated with the platform are already being invested in luxury goods or are hidden in the universe of cryptocurrencies, where it is difficult to trace. To date, several users have also given their testimony about how they fell into the scam and how it is affecting them, in addition to confirming that they have not received any payment from those responsible. It is important to highlight that many of the 120.000 affected users manage investments of 1 BTC or more.
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