On June 11th, Decrypt reported that the Fifth District Court of Barcelona is currently conducting an in-depth investigation into a cryptocurrency fraud case closely related to professional football players. The company involved in the case, Shirtum, has been accused of defrauding investors of at least 3.4 million US dollars by leveraging an NFT project featuring sports stars. The six players involved in the case are star-studded, including World Cup champion “Papu” Gomez, Lucas Ocampos, former Barcelona players Ivan Rakitić and Javier Saviola. And Nico Pareja and Alberto Moreno.
The prosecution documents disclosed in detail that this Spanish-Argentine joint venture constructed an extremely complex corporate structure, with the aim of evading taxes. The NFTS related to the image rights of players sold by this company have never been traded from the very beginning to the end. The players involved in the case actively participated in the promotion of the project as “founders”, but during the operation of the project, they systematically deleted all the evidence related to the project on social media. In March 2022, Shirtum claimed to have been hacked. However, puzzlingly, it did not submit any reports to the police. After that, the platform quietly shut down.
Papu Gomez has achieved remarkable success in the field of football. Born on February 15, 1988, in the Federal Capital region of Argentina, he is an Argentine male football player who plays as a striker. He has played for many well-known teams and on December 19, 2022, he won the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar with the Argentina national team. However, this involvement in the crypto fraud case has undoubtedly cast a shadow over his image.
Lucas Ocampos is also a well-known figure in Argentine football, and his football career has been quite rich. Former Barcelona players Ivan Rakitić and Javier Saviola have also demonstrated extraordinary abilities on the football field and have a large number of fans. Nico Pareja and Alberto Moreno also have certain influences in the field of football. Nowadays, these six players have been pushed to the forefront of public opinion due to the encryption fraud case of Shirtum Company.
This incident has also sounded the alarm for a large number of investors. When investing in cryptocurrency-related projects, especially those involving celebrity endorsements, it is essential to remain highly vigilant, thoroughly understand the project’s true background, operation mode, and potential risks. Do not blindly follow the trend and invest merely because of the celebrity effect, as this may lead to financial losses. As the investigation by the Fifth District Court of Barcelona continues to advance, more details and the ultimate direction of the case have also drawn much attention from all sectors.
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