Walter Finch
THE lavish outlays of a crypto-currency conman exposed by the Olive Press were laid bare in court this week.
Gibraltar Supreme Court heard how Gibraltarian Damian Carreras splurged €1.3 million on luxury goods and led a jet set lifestyle while his investors who funded it fretted about their money.
The Globix boss, who failed to appear to answer questions about his platform’s missing millions, allegedly splashed out over half a million euros at the Louis Vuitton shop in Puerto Banus.
He also spent €80,000 at the Fendi store next door, before popping over to Prada to tap €52,000 on his Globix credit card.
Another €111,000 was spent at Tagore in Gibraltar, according to information revealed by Daniel Feetham KC representing the liquidators trying to unravel the Globix riddle.
And across a months-long jolly he paid €116,000 on luxury hotels, spas and beach houses, according to Feetham.
Carreras had been ordered to submit to cross-examination over €26 million of missing investors’ money.
Due to claims he had been receiving death threats and was worried for the safety of his partner and child, the liquidators accepted his appearance by video link.
However, he failed to show at the allotted time, with Feetham labelling him as ‘economical with the truth’.
Carreras and tech officer Pavel Sidirov are wanted over allegations they syphoned €8 million and €3 million respectively from company coffers, as well as a further €40 million still unaccounted for.
Liquidators are trying to trace the cash that inexplicably vanished from Globix crypto wallets after the exchange had locked hundreds of investors out of their funds in early 2022.
In a previous hearing, the court heard Carreras has not been cooperating with London-based firm Begbies Traynor to produce the relevant documents.
While many of the crypto wallets have been identified and frozen, Carreras and Sidirov had refused to identify their own personal wallets.
However, they were finally uncovered by fellow crypto firm, Binance, which has now disclosed them.
Carreras previously released a statement declaring his ‘respect for the legal process and my willingness to cooperate in every way possible.’
Sidirov maintains that the ‘funds disappeared in Ukraine’ and that he only received ‘€200,000 to €300,000’ for his role running the platform ‘as a freelancer.’
Yet the Ukraine tale, prompted by the reported kidnapping of Sidirov in Alicante last year, has been labelled ‘unreliable’.
Liquidators hired to unravel the inner workings of the crypto exchange and trace the missing funds consider it to be a wild good chase, according to court documents.
Read more:
- D-Day for Globix pair set to take the stand over missing millions in alleged Gibraltar crypto fraud
- Gibraltar politician and other big shots among the investors in failed crypto scam Globix
- Crypto pair no show: Globix bosses face arrest warrant after failing to show up for court in Gibraltar
