Financial authorities in Kazakhstan have seized more than 1 million Tether from a major Ponzi scheme that converted its proceeds into cryptocurrency.
Organizers lured online investors with promises of high returns in exchange for their participation in a project that would earn income by watching short video clips.
Kazakhstan demolishes the financial pyramid and seizes its cryptocurrencies
Local media reported this week that Kazakhstan’s Financial Monitoring Agency (AFM) has dismantled a pyramid scheme called “NBC TV.”
An investigation by her office in Almaty identified the alleged mastermind of the Ponzi scheme, which targeted victims online.
The fake project, which launched in 2025, had a real-looking website and maintained several channels on the popular messaging app WhatsApp, which has hundreds of members.
NBCTV offered to participate in a platform that supposedly generates income by watching short video clips, mostly movie trailers, AFM revealed.
It promised daily returns of between 5% and 10% to those who purchased its investment packages worth between 11,000 and 160,000 Kazakh tenge (about $25 to $350).
In fact, the money for the payouts came entirely from contributions made by new investors, the watchdog noted in a press release, with more details:
“In addition, a referral system has been put in place, with payouts of up to 10% of the investments of referred individuals, as well as bonuses for second- and third-line participants.”
A Ponzi scheme hires influencers to persuade investors
To make it appear legitimate, organizers distributed advertising materials on social media and instant messaging apps, Zakon.kz and Kazlenta.kz reported on Tuesday. They also published fake documents proving their lack of income.
Scammers were recruited Bloggers To spread the message of the pyramid and manage chat rooms with different topics, the economic news portal Inbusiness.kz highlighted in its post.
The criminals collected funds across multiple individual accounts, converted them into cryptocurrency via peer-to-peer transactions, and then sent them to different wallets.
Kazakh authorities seized by court order a total of 1,057,599 tether (USDT), worth approximately 530 million tenge at the time of confiscation.
An order was issued to keep the main suspect in detention, and the criminal case was handed over to the judiciary of Kazakhstan AFM male.
The government body also recommended that citizens review the information provided by similar investment projects, check their official registrations and permits, and carefully consider all risks and promised returns before committing any funds.
Astana is cracking down on cryptocurrency crimes
Kazakhstan, which has ambitions to become Encryption center In Central Asia and the wider Eurasian region, the transition to… to organize And its digital asset-based economy, which has expanded dramatically since the country became a mining hotspot a few years ago.
And in the past few months, that Up Some restrictions on mining and steps have been taken to liberalize the cryptocurrency market. It is preparing for national construction Crypto backup And launch a Detention service.
Combating cryptocurrency-related crimes has also been part of regulatory efforts. Last September, financial and law enforcement authorities in Astana confiscation Nearly $10 million worth of cryptocurrency from another major Ponzi scheme.
Amir Capital presented itself as an international investment fund, soliciting funds from citizens of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Belarus, and offering investments in cryptocurrency trading and mining projects. It raised funds in major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether.
