In Amsterdam’s Rosewood Hotel, Kent Halliburton, the Peruvian-based CEO of Sazmining, found himself at the center of a sophisticated in-person scam connected to a Monaco-family office. The office had claimed it wanted to buy hundreds of bitcoin mining rigs—about $4 million worth—through Sazmining’s mining-as-a-service model, with plans to deploy the equipment at a facility in Ethiopia.
Over a three-course lunch, Even and Maxim presented themselves as affluent investors, probing Halliburton’s background while outlining deal terms. As a trust-building gesture, they urged him to execute a small bitcoin transfer—roughly $3,000—as a sign the relationship was genuine.
After the meal, one of the men slipped Halliburton a cash-filled envelope and told him to count it privately in a hotel bathroom, a scene he described as something out of a spy movie and a key moment in the social-engineering scheme.
Weeks of travel followed, with talk of finishing the deal in person in Amsterdam. Halliburton eventually created a new Atomic Wallet and carried out a test transfer of about $220,000. The funds were drained within minutes as attackers moved the crypto through a web of addresses and exchanges, leaving Halliburton stunned and out of pocket by around $200,000.
Blockchain investigators say the incident highlights a growing, highly coordinated fraud ecosystem that blends in-person intimidation with technical manipulation. The loss strained Sazmining’s finances but did not topple the company, which continues to navigate a landscape where criminals exploit trust, luxury settings, and crypto-rail networks to launder stolen funds.”
