Spanish authorities have ordered the detention without bail of Alvaro Romillo, a prominent crypto influencer and founder of the alleged Ponzi scheme Madeira Invest Club (MIC), on charges of orchestrating a massive $300 million fraud that defrauded thousands of investors.
Romillo was taken into custody on Thursday after investigators discovered a Singapore bank account containing €29 million ($33.5 million) tied to his network of companies.
Based on the discovery as a clear indication of a risk of flight, National Court Judge Jose Luis Calama requested that Alvaro be detained without bail after testifying in a two-hour hearing.
Over 3,000 Investors Duped in Madeira Invest Club Fraud
The Madeira Invest Club attracted over 3,000 victims in what investigators call a classic Ponzi scheme, collecting about 260 million Euros under the pretext of offering annual returns exceeding those of common investment securities of up to 20 percent, according to the Civil Guard of Spain.
It said it had access to investment opportunity in digital artwork and luxury items such as yachts, Ferraris, and gold with the purported so-called guaranteed buyback deals that prosecutors claim are now entirely fake.
In October of that year, several complaints prompted authorities to start investigating the alleged scheme. Romillo spent the next few months cooperating with investigators and the police confiscated dozens of luxury vehicles and other types of assets.
The subsequent arrest of him was necessitated by the fact that prosecutors confirmed the existence of the offshore accounts, and this increased the fear that he might go on the run in the country.
Alvaro Romillo Faces Up to 18 Years for Massive Crypto Fraud
According to documents provided in court, a sentence of up to nine years in jail, or eighteen if the crimes are considered a mass offense, may be imposed. In a hearing on Friday, the influencer stated an intention to return affected investors’ money, claiming that approximately 2,700 people had already been repaid in cash, but no materials or documents were provided to support these assertions.
To further confuse the matter, he also confessed to having made an unreported contribution of 100,000 Euros to the 2024 campaign of far-right MEP Luis Pérez of the SALF party, who himself is a focus of an independent investigation.
The Madeira Invest Club scandal is in rapid succession to becoming one of the largest crypto frauds in Spain to date, and it shows how the scrutiny of unregulated investment schemes in Europe is growing.
Broader Context: Crypto Scams and Phishing Attacks
In other cryptocurrency news, a cryptocurrency investor is reported to have lost 3.05 million in Tether (USDT), as a result of a phishing attack in which he was duped into a malicious blockchain transaction. This loss, which blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain reported on Wednesday, highlights the increasing risk of phishing attacks on holders of digital assets.
The attacker exploited a widespread security vulnerability among users who checked only the first and last few characters of a wallet address and left the rest unchecked, investigators stated.
The CertiK 2025 security report has reported that in the first half of the year, crypto investors lost over 2.2 billion due to hacks, scams, and breaches. In 34 instances alone, wallet compromise resulted in about $1.7 billion in damages, whereas phishing scams amounted to more than 410M in 132 instances of attacks.
The example of the alleged Ponzi network and the recent high-value phishing theft illustrate the mounting threats related to digital asset investment, as law enforcement agencies within the European region continue to crack down on fraudulent operations.