Duped by crypto scammers: “Then I deposited money to Tubel again”

Such unrealistic gains should make one skeptical. Has greed blinded you to danger?
I don’t believe. I don’t describe myself as a greedy person. I was more amazed by what was achieved. The crypto platform looked very professional.

How easy is your money?
I have always done my job seriously. But we’ve lived well the last few years. We went on cruises and bought two vacation homes that we rented. I am a social person. I have always been generous to my employees. And I help a friend when he needs it.

What role did your so-called advisor play?
I trusted him. We talked on the phone many times and also talked about private matters. Whenever I was sick he would ask how I was, wish me a happy Easter, and ask about my dog. And everything went well for months.

Was Marcel Bräuchi naive? Trustworthy. But so far he’s managed to trust his instinct with people. In his youth, he worked as an insurance inspector on commission. “Within a month I became the best salesperson in all of Switzerland.” He later ran a grocery store. At the age of 31, he became self-employed and founded his cleaning company. He’s only had to deal with one customer in all these years. “I knew right away if someone could pay.” He also worked as a magistrate for 20 years. Why does such a person get ripped off like this?

The letter “s” is missing in the address

In the autumn of 2023, Bräuchi asked for payment again. A larger amount this time. Suddenly Crypto1Capital charged a commission for this. 19 percent of the profit is over 37,000 francs. And Bräuchi must deposit this amount before receiving the winnings. He complains to his advisor. But he tells her it has to be that way, warns of losses if the process is delayed, and raves about the compliance checks and “financial functionalities.” So he pays customs.

But the money is not transferred to his account. And suddenly he couldn’t log in there anymore. After weeks of back-and-forth, he says he needs to open a new crypto account with a different provider, and Bräuchi opens a so-called wallet needed to store cryptocurrencies. But nothing happens, the wallet remains empty.

The new provider’s support will contact you. Bräuchi overlooks that its address is “atomicswallet.io” and not “atomicwallet.io,” meaning it has an extra “s.” The alleged support worker tells him over the phone that he needs to “unlock” five Bitcoins worth 30,000 francs each, the equivalent of cryptocurrency at the time. His advisor, Michael Pohl, was initially cautious, saying that he needed to examine the issue carefully and that we should also be careful. Finally he gets the green light. “And I paid Tubel again,” says Bräuchi. 150,000 francs in four tranches. The money is transferred to an account at the American cryptocurrency exchange Kraken through the Liechtenstein bank Frick.

Has your bank ever asked why you withdrew so much money from your account?
Not with these payments. 150,000 francs in a few days! Only once, in the spring, when I was depositing money into Crypto1Capital, my bank Raiffeisen called me and warned me about fraud. I told my advisor, Michael Pohl, this. He played the person in question again and wanted to know exactly why they were afraid of fraud. He later made various statements.

Shows output of Bräuchi chat logs. “I see this distrust as a result of the collapse of Credit Suisse and the movement of a lot of fiat currencies into the market,” the alleged advisor wrote in April 2023. “Traditional banks have lost their credibility and their customers are migrating to crypto banks. That is why those with interest in cryptocurrencies “They don’t like doing the transactions.” – “I think so too,” writes Bräuchi.

I’m lost in a strange world

Bräuchi is sitting at the corner table in his Valais holiday apartment. He constantly raises his eyebrows or breathes loudly through his nose while talking. He now had his arms wrapped tightly around his body as if he wanted to hide. A huge screen hangs on the wall, and there is a laptop and a printer on the table. Here, with increasing tension, he spent hours following crypto prices, opening new accounts, and writing increasingly desperate texts to the consultant.

The corner in the living room, already decorated for Christmas in November, looks like a foreign object. Small rattles hang on the walls, and a mosaic depicts the Matterhorn, lovingly designed and carefully arranged. “I always loved decoration,” says Bräuchi. The real, the concrete, the personal is his world. The virtual is not the Internet. “You won’t be able to receive anything yet because you don’t have validator status on the BTC network yet, we can’t withdraw fiat currency from Kraken,” his advisor writes. Bräuchi only understands train stations. “I actually have no idea about crypto and stuff like that.” But he trusted his advisor.

so-called saviors

In the fall of 2023, Maya Brown of the World Blockchain Organization will be in touch. She tells him that she was the victim of a scam. His name surfaced during investigations into Crypto1Capital operators. You can find a World Blockchain Organization on the Internet. It claims to be a subdivision of the UN. But he is not. And Maya Brown likely belongs to the same fraud network as advisor Michael Pohl. She says her money can be saved. A deposit of $60,000 is required to open blocked accounts. He will get it back along with the money saved.

But Bräuchi no longer has $60,000. His wife doesn’t want to give him anything. They always had separate accounts, but it had been a long time since they had a disagreement regarding their cryptocurrency business. For months he has been living alone in his holiday home in Valais most of the time. Fake detective Maya Brown encourages him to approach his friends for money. Michael Pohl, who now shows himself as a victim of Crypto1Capital and does not abandon his traditions, does the same. “Are you prepared to lose half a million if you have the opportunity to get it back?” Are you crazy?” she writes to him. “Michael, the problem is I don’t have $60,000,” Bräuchi replies.

Email from alleged tax office

Scammers go one step further. Bräuchi receives an e-mail from the Federal Tax Administration in Bern. An employee responsible for tax withholding wrote that he had been declared a profit of 340,000 francs. Was the transfer really made? Hope is revived in Bräuchi. “Even my wife believed the email was real.” Acting more cautiously, he personally contacted the Swiss authorities and reached the employee who allegedly signed the letter. But he explains to her that everything is fake. From the beginning. Crypto1Capital platform, advisor, regulator, everything. He should go to the police immediately.

Have you never talked to anyone about this before?
Only with my brother. But only with hints and when it is already too late. He knows as little about the crypto business as I do. My wife was constantly warning me, but I didn’t want to listen. I’m someone who wants to manage their own business. This was already the case in the company.

The police do not give Bräuchi much hope that he will see his money again. Fraudsters often operate from abroad, with deposits taking a roundabout route to banks in Eastern Europe or Malta. Unsuspecting people are often used as “money mules” who distribute the money. Online investment fraud is a business with mafia-like structures. Authorities estimate the damage in Switzerland alone will be 100 million francs in 2023.

Hope like poison

Marcel Bräuchi wants to publicly warn others. He needs to rearrange not only his financial situation but also his life. His money is gone, but he still has two flats. The disagreement he has with his wife puts a strain on him even more. And he lost his self-confidence. People still write to him regularly, telling him he can still save his investments and showering him with statements of assets allegedly in his name. “I know they are all scammers. Still, sometimes I ask myself: What if there was a way to get my money back?

Believe what you see; Marcel Bräuchi knows that he can no longer trust him. But hope dies last. Scammers rely on this.