Man defrauds real estate agent of thousands of Pounds, Euros in cryptocurrency scam in Kyrenia

Man who deceived a real estate agent in Kyrenia, and defrauded him of over 12,000 Pounds has been detained for 8 days on court order.

The suspect named only a E.C, a resident of Lefkoşa was arrested on August 16 for defrauding a real estate agent in Kyrenia and obtaining thousands of Pounds, Euros and Turkish Lira in cryptocurrency scam.

The suspect was brought before the Kyrenia Judicial court for the second time on Monday charged with cryptocurrency fraud.

Police in a court testimony said the suspect, between June 23, 2024 and August 17, 202 told a real estate broker that he needed to give money in order to convert the cryptocurrency into cash despite not having cryptocurrency in his account with the promise that he want to buy a house from him with the 4,000,000 dollars in his account..

He then fraudulently obtained 846,200 TL, 12,400 pounds sterling, 500 US dollars and 1,200 euros from the real estate agent by having some of it transferred in cash and the rest of it transferred to his own account via bank transfer.

Police noted that the complaint was made on August 15, 2024, an investigation was launched and an arrest warrant was issued for the suspect.

The suspect was detected and arrested in Boğazköy on August 16, 2024, and two mobile phones were found in his possession and taken as evidence.

Police said in investigation and witness statements taken determined that the suspect told them that he had bitcoin for 2-3 million dollars in 2023, introduced himself to people as a rich person and created a sense of trust towards himself by showing them a bitcoin account on his mobile phone.

The suspect was first brought to the Kyrenia District Court on August 17, 2024 where he was ordered to be held in detention for 2 days for the purpose of investigation.

During the 2-day detention period, the bank transfer receipts sent by the complainant to the suspect were received and 6 witness statements were obtained.

Police announced that the total amount of the transfer was determined to be 828,700 TL after examining the receipts.

Police said an application that allows crypto trading was detected in the examination of the suspect's mobile phone, and that there was $0.78, or 26.73 TL, in the suspect's crypto account.

Police stated that the amount of money the suspect had at his disposal was high, that there were bank statements that needed to be examined, and that there were many statements to be taken, and requested that the suspect be detained for another 8 days.