The Trento Financial Police dismantled it Hashburstan alleged fake cryptocurrency mining scheme that allegedly involved at least 200 people and generated damage estimated at approximately 5 million eurosreferring only to Trentino-Alto Adige. There are 15 suspects, while five have been subjected to precautionary measures under house arrest, while the preventive seizures exceed 877,000 euros, according to the press release from the Trento Financial Police.
At the center of the investigation, launched in April 2024 by the Gico of Trento and coordinated by the District Prosecutor’s Office, is Gabriele Edmondo Pegoraro, an engineer from Vicenza who has already been under investigation for the affair Equalizewhere investigators attributed him to a role as a hacker of computer systems. According to what has been reconstructed, Pegoraro would have conceived the project through Digital Verse Ltd: It focused on the purchase of computers presented as machines intended for mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Common PCs sold like gold mines
The mechanism promised earnings through mining, the process by which specialized hardware solves calculations for the blockchain network and receives digital currency rewards. The buyers would have paid up to 120,000 euros for the devices because they believed they were purchasing machines capable of generating income in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Litecoin.
The investigations instead reveal a much less sophisticated operation on a technical level: the computers delivered would have been normal PCs, without the characteristics necessary for profitable mining. Some sources indicate hardware with a real value of around 1,200-1,600 eurosresold at much higher prices taking advantage of the appeal of artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies.
Meetings in Trento and Bassano del Grappa, deliberately complex technical presentations and videos with personalized performance profiles, but disconnected from the real results, would have contributed to making the deal credible. The investigators also say that, faced with the loss of earnings, the answer would always have been the same: wait longer.
Seizures and possible crimes
Hypotheses emerge against the suspects criminal conspiracy aimed at fraudabusive exercise of investment and savings collection activities, as well as money laundering aggravated by transnationality. Part of the funds would be transited towards Belgium and Brazilincluding through individuals linked to money laundering on behalf of organized crime.
The story confirms a known problem in the crypto sector: home mining with ordinary PCs does not generate the promised returns, because competitive mining is based on ASICs and dedicated GPUs, high energy consumption and optimized infrastructures. For those approaching cryptocurrency investments, the difference between real hardware and marketing narrative often remains the first verification filter.
