By 2017, dos Santos was starting to make serious money - and attract authorities' attention. That year his company´s transactions totaled nearly 10 million reais ($1.8 million), 15 times higher than the previous year as money siphoned in and out of his bank accounts from all over Brazil, according to a federal police report.
The country´s financial intelligence unit also noticed the company - at the time registered as a restaurant - was regularly trading cryptocurrency on online exchange platforms.
After his arrest, a crowd gathered outside broadcaster TV Globo in Rio de Janeiro to protest coverage of the alleged racket.
In October, scores of supporters blocked the street outside a federal courthouse in Rio, demanding his freedom.
Clients were promised a 10% monthly return on their investments over 12- to 48-month contract periods, but did not own the bitcoins they were told G.A.S.
was purchasing with their money. And, they were assured, it was risk-free: They would get their entire initial investment back at the end of the contract.
Regis, a lawyer representing victims of G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who has become the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil's biggest-ever pyramid schemes. Regis, a lawyer representing victims of G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who has become the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil's biggest-ever pyramid schemes.
(AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
Regis, a lawyer representing victims of G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who has become the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil's biggest-ever pyramid schemes. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)" class="blkBorder img-share" style="max-width:100%" />
Lawyer Luciano Regis, 35, during an interview in Sao Pedro da Aldeia, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec.
15, 2021.
victims, with operations in at least 13 Brazilian states and seven other countries, including the U.S., United Arab Emirates, the U.K.
and Portugal. Prosecutors have identified at least 27,000 G.A.S.
He is now in a Rio jail awaiting trial on charges including racketeering, financial crimes and ordering the murder and attempted murder of two business competitors.
He remains under investigation in the attempted murder of a third competitor. In hundreds of pages of documents obtained by The Associated Press, federal and state police and prosecutors accuse dos Santos and his associates of running a sophisticated racket defrauding thousands of small-scale investors who believed they were getting rich off Bitcoin´s steep appreciation.
Do Carmo invested 40,000 reais ($7,000) - just over half the money left in his retirement fund. Then his therapist told him he sold his house to invest in G.A.S., and had been receiving 10% monthly returns for a year.
CABO FRIO, Brazil (AP) - In April, Brazil's federal police stormed the helipad of a boutique seaside hotel in Rio de Janeiro state, where they busted two men and a woman loading a chopper with 7 million reais ($1.3 million) in neatly packed bills.
G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by Glaidson Acacio dos Santos, a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who is the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil's biggest-ever pyramid schemes, was based in the beach town dos Santos called home. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)" class="blkBorder img-share" />
Beachgoers congregate on Fort Beach in Cabo Frio, Brazil, Wednesday, Dec.
15, 2021. G.A.S Consulting & Technology, a cryptocurrency investment firm founded by Glaidson Acacio dos Santos, a former waiter-turned-multimillionaire who is the central figure in what is alleged to be one of Brazil's biggest-ever pyramid schemes, was based in the beach town dos Santos called home.
(AP Photo/Bruna Prado)
(AP Photo/Bruna Prado)" class="blkBorder img-share" style="max-width:100%" />
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