Monero Founder Ricardo Spagni Named Interpol Whistleblower

On Monday, March 20, information appeared on the network that the founder of the Monero project, Riccardo Spagni, was arrested in South Africa. At the same time, rumors spread that he was allegedly an Interpol informant. Spagni himself denies this, in fact, as well as the very fact of the arrest.

News about the detention of the founder of Monero published Twitter user James Edwards. In the recording, he included screenshots of news footage and an alleged arrest warrant for Spagni aka “Fluffypony”.

Now, according to Edwards, the founder of Monero is in custody and is awaiting extradition to the United States. In the same thread, the author suggested that Spagni has been an Interpol informant since March 2021.

To prove this, Edwards cites excerpts from e-mail and documentation. According to him, Spagni monitored the activities of the platform and “leaked” internal data to Interpol.

Reaction “Fluffyponny”

It is beyond disappointing that I even have to write this thread. The accusations of a known scammer are clearly nonsensical and should not need refuting. This is Brandolini’s law in action! /6

— Ric “el pony esponjoso” (@fluffypony) March 22, 2023

As for the arrest, “Fluffyponny” denied this information as well. According to him, there is no talk of arrest, let alone extradition. Spagni even “retweeted” the official response of the South African police, in which they said that they never detained the founder of Monero,

Edwards Spagni called himself a “scammer”. He also attached evidencewhich allegedly confirm his accusations against the author of the revealing material.

Interestingly, writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of Black Swan, commented on the situation:

Spagni reacted to this publication with a double entry: “Now you understand.” How to perceive this, and what the situation will turn out for the Monero community is not yet clear.