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Rabat – A Marrakech family has decided to take legal action against a young man who defrauded them out of close to a million euros in a cryptocurrency scam. The 22-year-old defendant is accused of cryptocurrency fraud, breach of trust, and forming an organized gang.
According to testimony received by Morocco World News, a young man studying at the American School of Marrakech started taking the family out to fancy hotels and spending large amounts at luxury stores.
According to the complaint filed in Marrakech, the perpetrator’s flaunting of wealth reached the level of buying a Porsche car worth at least MAD 1.5 million ($146,000).
After convincing the family that cryptocurrency investments were safe, the victims reported that the young man approached several families about entrusting him with their money to invest it in Bitcoin.
“Then, he used the emotional attachment that we had with him and introduced himself as a professional trader and used this status to convince us to invest money with him under a set contract that claimed that there was no possibility for us to lose money and that it was secure,” one of the scammer’s victims told MWN.
The alleged scammer then disappeared, refusing to answer any of the family’s calls.
The defendant’s father later called the victim’s family to inform them that his son had lost the total amount entrusted to him, which amounted to around MAD 20 million ($1.9 million).
The complaint highlights that it would be impossible for the perpetrator to have lost all the money given to him for the cryptocurrency investments, which could depreciate but cannot be completely lost, presenting this as supporting evidence for a case of theft and fraud.
In addition to the alleged crimes in the complaint, the defendants could also face punishment for violating Moroccan financial and customs laws, including trading in cryptocurrency, which is still banned in Morocco.
“We were only able to communicate with his family, who have tried to buy us off with a mediocre price in exchange for our silence to not plead against their son by signing a formal paper,” one of the scam’s victims told MWN. “He abused my trust and stole my identity.”
The text of the complaint corroborates this, saying that the defendant’s family also tried to intimidate the victims by alleging that they belong to “a powerful family with strong ties.”
Cryptocurrency scams are still common in the unregulated market, with regular complaints of pump-and-dump schemes with newly created currencies. As the market continues to be largely unregulated, experts advise increased caution and research when dealing with cryptocurrencies.
