The Turkish police's cybercrimes unit launched a crackdown against a gang behind a Ponzi scheme operated over a Bitcoin transfer. A court ordered the arrests of seven suspects out of 30 detained in nationwide operations.

The gang's leader is identified as Russian national S.M. The suspects were operators of TurkeyMMM, a website offering "high returns" in return of bitcoin payments.

They are accused of collecting about TL 1.2 million ($244,935) from unsuspecting clients and not paying it back. Media outlets said some 40,000 people invested money in the scheme.