South Korean authorities have arrested 215 people allegedly behind a cryptocurrency investment scam that defrauded thousands of victims.

Yonhap News rEPORTS that the suspected perpetrators, including a YouTuber with 620,000 subscribers, received 325.6 billion won, or about $231 million, from 15,304 people who were lured into investing their money in crypto for high profits.

The YouTuber, identified only as Mr. A, and his cohorts are accused of operating bogus investment advisory firms. They allegedly told victims that they could get returns of 20 times their investments.

Most of the victims are middle-aged and elderly who would have been advised to sell their apartments or get a loan to buy crypto. They allegedly paid and lost up to 1.2 billion won, or about $852,520 each.

The scheme reportedly involved 28 cryptocurrencies, six of which were issued by the suspects themselves and listed on overseas exchanges through brokers. The rest of the virtual assets have small trading volumes and small value.

Police say the mod is the biggest case of coin investment fraud in history. An official also warns investors to be wary of similar schemes.

“If big profits are guaranteed by non-face-to-face investment recommendations, it’s likely to be a scam, so please be extra careful.”

Mr A was arrested after initially fleeing to Australia via Hong Kong and Singapore. Authorities seized 22 Bitcoin (BTC) and 47.8 billion won, or about $34 million.

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