Australian Serial Crypto Conman Will Strike Again, Warns Alleged Victim

A former commercial airline pilot defrauded of millions of dollars in Bitcoin has cautioned other cryptocurrency investors about notorious Australian serial scammer Peter Foster.

Konstantinos “Dino” Stylianopoulos, a resident of Hong Kong, claims he was defrauded of A$2 million in Bitcoin by Foster in an online gambling scheme, Sport Predictions, run by Foster under an alias.

Police allege bets made by Stylianopoulos and others participating in the scheme were never placed and instead diverted to Foster.

How a $2 Million Bitcoin Investment Ballooned Into An Estimated $8 Million Loss

“Getting anything back from somebody like this is very difficult,” says Stylianopoulos, who claims he lost an estimated A$8 million when the price of Bitcoin later soared. “The bigger objective is to stop (Foster),” he told The Australian newspaper. “In Australia, I don’t believe anybody else has hurt more people.”

“It’s like (the fable of the frog and) the scorpion … ‘Why did you bite me?’ ‘Because I’m a scorpion’.”

Konstantinos Stylianopoulos

Foster remains at large, released on bail in a jurisdictional mix-up between authorities in NSW and Queensland, where the Sport Predictions operation was based. He had been extradited to NSW as the operation’s Bitcoin transfers were made through a Sydney cryptocurrency exchange.

Police In Two States Lack Shared Jurisdiction

According to Stylianopoulos, NSW prosecutors contacted him the day before Foster was bailed by a Sydney court. “There was no chance for me to voice any opinion on it,” he told The Australian. “My biggest question is, why didn’t they coordinate with police in Queensland to just do a handover?”