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Dutch Police Arrest Three in Pump-and-Dump Scheme Involving Self-Made Cryptocurrency

The arrests resulted from an investigation of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinhouse.eu.

By James Rubin
AccessTimeIconJun 5, 2021 at 4:53 a.m. UTC
Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 1:06 p.m. UTC
Dutch police say additional arrests may be possible.
Dutch police say additional arrests may be possible.
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Dutch police arrested three men in the industrial town of Deventer for attempting to defraud investors by selling them a self-made cryptocurrency and then intentionally sinking its price.

  • The police charged the men with fraud and embezzlement, and did not rule out additional arrests.
  • Police arrested one of the men at a Deventer warehouse that held several computers used for mining cryptocurrency. There “was also an issue of electricity theft,” according to a press release posted on the website of the National Dutch Police.
  • The arrests stemmed from an investigation of the cryptocurrency exchange Coinhouse.eu, which authorities have suspected of embezzling customers’ money and defrauding them.
  • In what authorities described as a pump-and-dump scheme, one of the men, a 39-year-old, produced the cryptocurrency and advertised it on a cryptocurrency platform and Twitter, luring investors and boosting the price. He then sold a large volume of digital coins over a short time frame, rendering them “worthless.”
  • The 39-year-old man is also suspected of similarly trying to scam investors using ERSO, MALC, EUROP and TulipMania digital currencies, the press release said.
  • During the investigation, police seized a house, vehicles, computers and cryptocurrencies.

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