CEO Loses $24 Million in Alleged Cryptocurrency Scam by 15 Year Old

One cryptocurrency holder who had $24 million in cryptocurrency claims it was all stolen from him by a 15-year-old group of “evil computer geniuses,” according to an article from BloombergQuint.

Allegedly, these kids (namely one Ellis Pinsky), stole the assets by hacking into Michael Terpin’s phone back in 2018. Terpin is now suing Pinsky for falling victim to his supposed “sophisticated cybercrime spree.”

Terpin is the CEO of the Transform Group blockchain advisor group. He’s suing the now 18-year-old Pinsky for over $71 million.

As the publication notes, Terpin stated in his complaint:

“Pinsky and his other cohorts are in fact evil computer geniuses with sociopathic traits who heartlessly ruin their innocent victims’ lives and gleefully boast of their multi-million-dollar heists.”

Cryptocurrency scams and similar issues are a dime-a-dozen in this industry. However, single thefts in the millions are not incredibly common. Instead, they’re usually a ton of currency stolen from many different types of people.

Take this Ripple case, for example. As of now, Ripple is suing YouTube for allowing a scammer to impersonate the company’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, as InsideBitcoins has previously reported on.

This scam is said to have affected many, with millions of people having seen it alone. One user lost $15,000 in XRP.