Sergei Berezin/Paul Bertholz sat in the 15 April 2024 deportation hearing at the Supreme Court of Justice in the shorts and flip flops he was in when arrested in the Bayahibe beach town. European authorities have requested his deportation accusing him of being part of an alleged pyramid scheme that resulted in hundreds of thousands of victims in Spain, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Netherlands, United States, Colombia, Venezuela and Mexico.
The hearing that would decide on preventive custody and the request for deportation to Spain was postponed for Thursday, 18 April 2024.
The arrest of the Russian in the beach town of Bayahibe reportedly was part of a joint investigation conducted by several European law enforcement authorities, supported by Europol and Eurojust, that culminated in the arrest of the Russian in the Dominican Republic and eight other suspects around the world as the authorities follow the JuicyFields investment fraud case.
On 11 April 2024, over 400 law enforcement officers in 11 countries executed 9 arrest warrants and conducted 38 house searches. During the investigation and action day, EUR4,700,000 in bank accounts, EUR1,515,000 in cryptocurrencies, EUR106,000 in cash and EUR2,600,000 in real estate assets were seized or frozen. Law enforcement also seized several luxury vehicles, works of art, cash and various luxury items, as well as large numbers of electronic devices and documents.
According to judicial estimates, the total damages resulting from fake investments in the advertised cannabis cultivation crowdsourcing platform amount to a staggering EUR645 million, but actual and unreported damages could be significantly higher. In total, an estimated 550,000 participants worldwide, most of them European citizens, were registered as online investors. Using bank transfers or cryptocurrencies, around 186,000 participants actually transferred funds into the apparent elaborate Ponzi scheme active from early 2020 to July 2022.
Noticias SIN reported during the arrest, the judiciary seized RD$922,000, US$33,000, EUR880 and cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, USDT, TRX y Ethereum) with a worth estimated at USD$55,996. The authorities also confiscated a pistol charger with capacity for 31 9-mm bullets, a Tahoe SUV, numerous passports, and portions of a vegetable suspect to be marijuana.
The Russian’s lawyer says that the crimes for which his client is accused do not merit deportation. Lawyer Jose Hilario German told Diario Libre that international law and treatise law is reserved for serious crimes. He is hopeful the extradition bid to Spain will be rejected by the Supreme Court of Justice for being groundless.
As reported online, JuicyFields, operated between 2020 and 2022, and attracted thousands of investors with the promise of impressive returns on investments in medical cannabis cultivation. The first investors even doubled their stake, which encouraged others to invest larger sums.
The truth came out in July 2022 when the organizers of the scheme suddenly removed JuicyFields from social networks and blocked users’ accounts on the site, preventing withdrawals of winnings. Complaints then poured in, leading Europol to coordinate a complex and multinational investigation.
Read more:
Canna Reporter
Juicy Fields
Europol
Noticias SIN
Diario Libre
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
Noticias SIN
Somos Pueblo
16 April 2024