Seoul Police Nab Two in $8.5M XRP Heist

Seoul police have arrested two men in connection with an $8.5 million XRP heist last October, as part of a massive fake staking site scam that targeted 71 investors.

The scheme, which lasted eight days from October 16 to 23, saw the operators impersonate Flare Network and its FXRP token by seeding false information on blogs, articles, and YouTube videos. Investors were promised monthly returns of 1.5% to 1.8% with principal guaranteed, but instead lost their XRP when the site shut down.

Police say the group also planted fake evidence on Wikipedia and produced videos featuring a paid stand-in to make the project appear legitimate. The scheme followed FXRP's actual launch in September last year.

Average losses per victim were around $119,000 during the week the site was live, with police freezing 17.3 billion won ($18.8 million) of assets across overseas exchanges as soon as they detected the scam. An additional 10 billion won moved during the investigation remains unaccounted for.