The Audiencia Nacional has increased the sentences for the fraud of the cryptocurrency platform Arbistar, imposing 16 years in prison on Santiago Fuentes Jover, from Girona, and 11 years on Diego Fernández Nojarova. The court also adds the crime of belonging to a criminal organization, which was not included in the sentence handed down in September of last year.
The increase in penalties contrasts with a process that has not yet closed the judicial route or economic reparation for those affected. Although the case attributes a loss of 200 million euros and nearly 32,000 affected investors between 2019 and 2020 to the scam, compensation has been paralyzed for now by the appeals filed before the Supreme Court.
The Audiencia Nacional added the crime of criminal organization
The ruling describes a scheme based on the Community Bot program, presented as a tool capable of generating profits through cryptocurrency arbitrage. The court maintains that in reality there was no real economic activity and that the system paid the first clients with money contributed by new ones.
The recruitment of investors was supported by public events, hotels, conferences, and videos disseminated on YouTube. The operation was interrupted in August 2020, when users tried to withdraw their funds and the platform stopped responding to those requests.
The sentence also includes the acquittal of four individuals and three companies that had been investigated at the beginning of the proceedings. The obligation to compensate those affected is currently limited to 9,494 people included in the Prosecutor's Office's list.
Appeals to the Supreme Court now halt payment to 9,494 affected individuals
The specific amounts that each affected person will receive have not yet been determined and will have to be specified in the execution phase. This procedure is suspended while the Supreme Court resolves the appeals filed by the defenses of the two convicted individuals.
The lawyers question part of the digital evidence incorporated into the case. Among their objections is that the original forensic dump of a mobile phone was not preserved, in addition to challenging the calculation of economic damage and denouncing a possible breach of procedural guarantees.
Before arriving at the National Court, the case started in a court in Arona, in Tenerife. The final ruling on the convictions of Santiago Fuentes Jover and Diego Fernández Nojarova now corresponds to the Supreme Court.