Sergei Berezin, Founder of Juicy Fields, Extradited to Spain

The Public Prosecutor’s Office secured the extradition of the Russian national which was granted by the Supreme Court of Justice

By now, Sergei Berezin, the erstwhile founder of the Juicy Fields scam, is cooling his heels in a Spanish prison. He has been held in the Dominican Republic since April when he, along with others were apprehended thanks to the work of Lars Olofsson and team, who led the police to the fraudster. On July 31, the Dominican Supreme Court, via its Second Chamber, issued the ruling granting the Spanish extradition.

At the time of arrest, the police traced three apartments to the Russian native, along with cryptocurrencies worth over $50,000 in crypto and about the same amount in fiat currency.

What Happens Next?

It is unclear at this juncture which country will actually prosecute the Juicy Fields perps. For some unknown reason, even though the scam was founded and mostly run from Germany, right now it appears that the trials of those caught so far might be in Spain. Probably Madrid.

However, nothing is set in stone. It could be that Interpol and Europol are just gathering everyone in one country before extraditing them again within the EU. Or, it could be that German authorities want to have a trial outside of Germany, including to shift focus from the fact that so many Germans went along with the scam, including taking money, but also deliberately turning a blind eye to the scam’s operation.

Regardless, given the pace of both the investigation and now the extradition, it is reasonably safe to assume that some kind of trial will be held in Europe by the end of 2024.

What Was Juicy Fields?

Juicy Fields was a major money laundering, Ponzi scheme, run by the Russian mafia, between 2020 and 2022. The scam was notable for spreading a great deal of money around the cannabis industry, particularly industry conferences in Europe as well as its outlandish get-rich-quick claims. Subsequent research has revealed a strong connection between the perps, the Russian intelligence agency, the FSB, and illegal arms dealing.

Estimates on how much investors lost vary. At the low end it could be as “little” as $670 million, however, there are indications that investor losses are much higher than that.

So far, with the exception of Olofsson, no authority has tried to get investor money back.

The arrests of Berezin and others are a dramatic development in a case that is still unfolding, although at this point, the scammers have wrapped up their claims that they are either still growing or attempting to refund investors.

The extradition also comes as there is a heightened interest in the CEOs of social media companies and the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov in France. Juicy Fields had huge Telegram groups where investors were continually pitched on investing in the platform.