|
WinCapita, previously WinClub and GiiClub, was a Finnish Internet-based Ponzi scheme, that advertised itself as a private investment club engaged in currency trading. In reality, it was a bucket shop like many other foreign exchange fraud schemes. It operated mainly in Finland, with a smaller number of members also in Sweden. The operation collected about 100 million euros from more than 10,000 investors, probably the largest fraud in the Finnish history.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Poliisi - 404 )〕〔(Helsinki Times ) Over 700 criminal complaints on WinCapita -Finnish police, August 13, 2008〕 In March 2008, the National Bureau of Investigation started investigations on the club. In December 2011, the District Court of Vantaa found the chief suspect Hannu Kailajärvi guilty of aggravated fraud, and sentenced him to four years in prison.〔 In February 2013, the Court of Appeal of Helsinki found him guilty of aggravated fraud and a money collection offence, and increased his prison sentence to five years. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court. ==Scheme== The company presented itself as an invitation-only foreign exchange investment club that required an initial investment of several thousand euros while promising up to 4-fold returns. As a proof of concept for its members it offered an automatic "signal clock" software which was said to predict good times to buy or sell a currency.〔 Members for the new club were acquired at presentation meetings, to which current members were encouraged to bring friends, who could then in turn be persuaded into investing in the club. The importance of respect and loyalty to the club were underlined in its rules.〔(Image from an anonymous member of the club on the web board Muropaketti )〕 The "investors' club" was especially popular on several web forums. The few lucky ones on the top of the pyramid who got initially paid told success stories to others, spreading trust to the club. According to intermediary police report over 10,000 people invested a total of almost 100 million euros in the club. However, only a small fraction of those have filed a police report so far. (About 2,250 as of June, 2009, for a sum of 33 million euros〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=WinCapitan esitutkinta )〕) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「WinCapita」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|
