Sasha Menegel, the daughter of the Xuxa host, is one of the victims of the gang that used the cryptocurrency scam in Santa Catarina and abroad. The group became the target of an operation by the Federal Police after the criminals transferred 4 billion reais in the past six years.

Sasha Meneghel was one of the victims of a gang operating in Santa Catarina and abroad – Photo: @SashaMeneghel/Reproduction/ND

The model suffered a loss of 1.2 million reais due to fraud, as reported by the Splash Federal Police from UOL. In addition to her, her husband Joao Figueiredo also fell for the “sheikh of cryptocurrencies”.

They met a man in the service of an evangelical church they attend. The couple initially invested 50,000 reais, but they soon signed two contracts worth over 1 million reais. The Sheikh’s company promised an income of up to 8.5% of the value in the cryptocurrency leasing scheme.

Realizing that they would not receive the promised income, Sasha and Joao filed a claim for moral and material damages on charges of fraud. The process takes place in the 14th civil court of Paraná.

At the time, the sheikh claimed that the company was undergoing restructuring and therefore was unable to pay back part of the income promised to investors. In addition to Sasha, he would attract other celebrities and well-known pastors.

Luxury goods seized

The investigation began in March 2022 after Interpol told the Federal Police that an international company operating in the United States was being investigated by the Eldorado HSI task force in New York.

Since 2016, the gang has moved 4 billion Brazilian reais – Photo: Montage/ND

The Brazilian, the head of the gang, lived in Curitiba and is suspected of being involved in a multi-million dollar money laundering conspiracy based on a pyramid scheme with investments in crypto assets.

20 search and seizure warrants issued by the 23rd Federal Court of Curitiba are issued in the Governorate of Celso Ramos (South Carolina), Curitiba (Pr), Sao José dos Pinhais (Pr), Barueri (Pr), San José do Rio Preto. (SP) and Angra dos Reis (RJ).[

Além disso, houve a decretação judicial de sequestro de imóveis e bloqueio de valores. Diligências iniciais revelaram que o brasileiro possuía mais de cem empresas abertas no Brasil vinculadas a ele e, através de seu grupo empresarial, estaria lesando investidores não só no exterior, mas também em território nacional.

Conforme as investigações, o chefe da quadrilha iludiu milhares de vítimas, que alegava realizar o aluguel de criptoativos com pagamento de remunerações mensais que poderiam alcançar até 20% do capital investido.

Ele dizia que tinha vasta experiência no mercado de tecnologia e criptoativos, e que tinha uma grande equipe de traders que realizariam operações de investimento com as criptomoedas alugadas e, assim, gerariam lucro para suportar o pagamento dos rendimentos.

*Com informações do UOL