Investors fear millions lost in Pennsylvania's largest cryptocurrency scandal

Ms Kesselly, her husband, and their friends and co-workers are among the thousands of investors around the world — roughly 15,000 in all — whose money is now sitting inaccessible in company-controlled accounts as they try to recover bitcoin valued collectively at over US$11mil (RM49.48mil). — Image by drobotdean on Freepik

Pennsylvania educator Mayama Kesselly said she was sceptical when a co-worker pitched her on a lucrative investment in one of the most explosive financial marketplaces in the world: cryptocurrency, which had gained glowing endorsements from Hollywood celebrities and Silicon Valley CEOs.

Shortly after her initial investment last spring in VBit Technologies — a novel bitcoin mining venture launched by a flamboyant Philadelphia entrepreneur — started to reap hefty profits, she and her husband went all in.