Austrian law enforcement has accused eleven people of participating in a financial pyramid involving real estate investments and cryptocurrencies, in which 40,000 investors lost assets totaling about $16 million.

Suspects from Austria, Croatia and Italy appeared before the Klagenfurt District Court. Among them was the 24-year-old stepson of an unnamed celebrity. The court sentenced five defendants to prison terms ranging from 5 to 18 months, five were acquitted, and another was absent from trial.

According to the prosecutor’s office, the organizers of the scheme guaranteed investors large profits if they invested money in real estate and traded various cryptocurrencies, including the EXW crypto asset.

However, the scammers misappropriated the collected funds, spending them on visits to nightclubs in Dubai, as well as on the purchase of real estate, luxury cars, private jets and even a shark tank. In particular, the celebrity’s stepson spent about $108,000 on the services of “girls of easy virtue” alone.

Police called the case one of the largest fraud trials in Austrian history. The investigation was complicated by the fact that the criminals transported money in plastic bags, stored cash in shoe boxes and exchanged funds through cryptocurrency platforms.

Recently, Indian citizen Chirag Tomar was sentenced for creating a fake website for the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and wasting illegally obtained funds on a luxurious lifestyle. He will have to serve five years in prison.