Millions to Nowhere: Zero Edge Founder Accused of Fraud

Investors believed and were left with nothing. Former top manager of large financial structures Richard Kim was at the centre of a high-profile scandal. According to the FBI, he fraudulently attracted more than $7 million in the Zero Edge startup, which was positioned as an innovative blockchain casino.

Kim introduced himself as the "lead architect" of the project and used his professional reputation: before that, he worked at JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and the law firm Cleary Gottlieb. In 2024, he left Galaxy Digital to launch Zero Edge. Everything looked ambitious, until the money disappeared.

Phishing, crypto market, and casinos

Just a week after raising investments, Kim reported a loss of $80,000 due to phishing. Then he admitted that he "poured" $3.8 million into risky cryptocurrency transactions using borrowed funds.

Despite this, Kim continued to assure investors for several months that the project was developing. Only in June, he confessed to serious losses and his own negligence, stressing that he had no intention of absconding with the money.

However, according to investigators, some of the funds raised were transferred to Shuffle.com, a gambling site where Kim apparently continued to gamble with investors' money.

Hackers Attack Not Only Players

The crypto casino industry remains highly risky — not only for players and investors, but also for the platforms themselves. Last year, the Duelbits platform suffered a hacker attack: attackers managed to compromise the private key and steal $4.6 million.