OmegaPro: The $4 Billion Crypto Ponzi Scheme and Its Collapse
Founded in 2018 and registered in the Caribbean, OmegaPro presented itself as a high-return investment platform using an “automated trading” algorithm. Promising investors returns of up to 300% over a maximum of 16 months, OmegaPro was actually a Ponzi scheme that paid early investors using funds from new victims. The scheme began to unravel in late 2022, with the platform ceasing withdrawals by November, and disappearing completely by July 2023.
Recent developments have brought the scheme back into the spotlight with the July 2024 arrest of OmegaPro co-founder Andreas Szakacs, a Swedish-Turkish national, in Istanbul. Following this, Robert Velghe, a key executive involved in the scam, was arrested in Turkey on September 5, 2024, after attempting to evade detection by Turkish authorities.
Velghe, who was previously connected to OMNIA Tech—a notorious MLM scam that defrauded thousands of small investors—continues to face legal scrutiny for his involvement in large-scale crypto frauds. Turkish authorities have uncovered substantial evidence linking OmegaPro’s operations to the infamous OneCoin scam, with transactions worth $160 million traced from seized wallets. OmegaPro is now estimated to have caused total victim losses of up to $4 billion.
