Police Seize Lux Cars And Wads Of Cash From Brit Firm In EUR-100-Million Probe

A British-based crypto firm suspected of a EUR-100-million scam has been raided by police who seized luxury cars, cash and property worth EUR 2 million.

The raid - on luxury homes in Treviso, Italy - came after the London-registered firm's directors Christian Visentin and Emanuele Giullini were arrested in Dubai.

The pair - who run cryptocurrency firm New Financial Technology - are said to have squandered investors' cash on luxury cars, expensive watches and property.

Italy's financial police - the Guardia di Finanza - released video footage of one of the raids at a property on a private estate in Treviso.

The footage shows police and sniffer dogs unearthing wads of EUR 50 banknotes, a box full of car keys and luxury motors in a garage.

As police pull back dust sheets the video shows a Porsche, a BMW SUV, a classic VW Beetle and a Mercedes coupe.

Local media reports that officials seized 10 cars during the raids.

Another scene shows an officer counting piles of EURO notes found stashed inside the property.

Newsflash obtained the footage from the Guardia di Finanza and they said on 17th February that they had seized "financial assets, movable and immovable assets worth EUR 2 million" (GBP 1.77 million).

The move comes after the investigation was reportedly handed over to the Public Prosecutor's Office in Pordenone a few days earlier.

Local media reported that at least EUR 800,000 (GBP 710,000) in funds from investors were simply blown on cars and never invested.

An earlier raid last month seized eight luxury watches worth EUR 350,000 (GBP 310,500) from one of the suspects' homes.

The suspect, who has not been named, was reportedly trying to get the watches to Switzerland to sell them but was unsuccessful.

Another unnamed suspect reportedly set up a winery, using money from the company to buy buildings and land, set to be used to make fine wines.

Police believe that hundreds of thousands of euros belonging to investors were used on real estate instead of speculation, according to local media, with the company suspected of defrauding investors out of millions more.

Swiss media report that New Financial Technology was founded in Silea, Treviso, with its headquarters in London, the UK.

New Financial Technology reportedly promised returns of up to 10 per cent on capital invested through a model known as arbitrage transactions on cryptocurrency exchange platforms.

The model, which is also used by legitimate companies, reportedly takes advantage of market mismatches on the various exchanges to generate profit.

Investors were reportedly required to deposit a minimum of EUR 10,000 (GBP 8,870), with an estimated 6,000 people believed to have been defrauded last year of amounts ranging from EUR 10,000 to EUR 300,000 (GBP 266,000).

Many of the victims reportedly invested their life savings and mainly live in the Italian regions of Lazio, Veneto, Piedmont, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna.

It is believed that the company may have defrauded investors of anything from EUR 40 million to EUR 100 million in what Swiss media have labelled a "pyramid scheme".

Other reports state that Visentin and Giullini raised as much as EUR 260 million from investors using a number of companies.

The investigation is ongoing.