Arsenal Tula footballer Alexei Pomerko was defrauded of more than 2 million rubles when the athlete tried to buy cryptocurrency through his friend, another footballer.

Pomerko asked a friend, a former member of the youth and youth national teams of Russia Vyacheslav Dmitriev, to go instead to a meeting to buy cryptocurrency in the Moscow City business complex.

The football player handed over $10,000 to his colleague. He arrived at the Bamba Bar restaurant, where the cryptocurrency seller was supposed to come. The seller, who identified himself as Islam, arrived and the transaction was completed successfully.

Afterwards, Pomerko wanted to buy cryptocurrency using the same scheme. He again asked Dmitriev to transfer $24,500 to Islam. The second meeting was scheduled at the Lambic bar in the same Moscow City. Islam took the money, showed a screenshot of the transfer and left in a Gelendvagen. But the assets did not arrive in Pomerko’s crypto wallet.

The football players contacted the police.

Earlier in September, Moscow actor Artem Tkachenko contacted the police. He invested $200,000 and 6 million rubles in a “joint cryptocurrency business,” but then his wallet was blocked.

Actor Pavel Derevyanko said that he also invested in the crypto business, but the investment was not just a failure – now the actor owes over 45 million rubles.