Riccardo Spagni

Riccardo is a member of the Monero core group, stewards of the Monero mission, and the Monero venture’s lead maintainer. With an educational background in informatics and logistics. Riccardo spent many years in software improvement before beginning an enterprise in the import/export industry with his wife. Because of the success of that enterprise, he had enough freedom to start tinkering with Bitcoin early in 2011. In 2012, he was involved in numerous cryptocurrency-associated projects, and in 2017 he founded GloBee, a multi-currency charge processor.

Riccardo Spagni was arrested in the 2021 year over accusations of fraud.

At the same time, as Monero has attracted controversy for being the ‘automobile of preference’ for cybercriminals, Spagni — or ‘fluffypony’ — is at the back of bars on non-crypto-associated costs. He has been accused of defrauding his former company, Cape Cookies, for approximately $100,000 by producing fake invoices. In addition, John McAfee confronted tax evasion fees, Ross Ulbricht was convicted for working The Silk Road, and Arthur Hayes surrendered over cash laundering expenses.

However, Spagni’s arrest was not a result of one of Monero’s alleged illicit transactions coming to light. Still, due to some other non-crypto crimes, Spagni committed a decade in the past. The South African citizen has been accused of committing fraud between 2009 and 2011 while running as an IT supervisor for Cape Cookies, also centered in South Africa.

However, that doesn’t suggest his history with cryptocurrencies doesn’t have a function to play. In keeping with the warrant seen via CoinDesk, Spagni is presently being held under arrest without the choice to publish bail for two primary reasons. One is the price of his watch, pegged at around $800,000. And the second motive is Spagni’s cryptocurrency holdings.