How a journalist lost his crypto life exposing Mexican cartels

On a balmy evening on the east coast of Spain in 2023, Olivier Acuna sat down at his computer to transfer his life to another cryptocurrency wallet, as he had done hundreds of times before.

“Sending crypto is always a concern,” Acuna told CoinDesk. It was heartfelt that night.

When Acuna hit Send, it was done: $400,000 worth of crypto—all his money—gone, stolen by an anonymous phishing scam. Acuña’s ears were ringing, his body feverish, his fists clenched.

Acuna’s loss shows that no one is immune to crypto hackers. He is a seven-year veteran of the crypto industry, someone who understands the need for caution given the risks surrounding blockchains. Before that, he was a journalist for decades as he covered violent drug cartels and prison torture in Mexico.

But he has become one of the many victims of crypto scams. In 2023, US officials received 69,000 reports of crypto theft More than 5.6 billion dollars.

It can be difficult to get a refund. If your regular bank account goes bust, the insurance will almost certainly cover your losses. But the famous and deliberately decentralized crypto does not have such a tightly regulated system. While this disintermediation gives crypto users freedom from institutions of their choice, it is a double-edged sword. Leaving gatekeepers can also leave people one click away from destruction.

Huck himself was nothing special. Acuna reached out to customer support via social media after he was unable to access his funds on the Ledger hardware. Someone stepped in, and after 30 minutes of deception, Acuna was caught in the scammer’s web.

“Phishing scams remain incredibly prolific today,” Adrian Hetman, head of triaging at Web3 security researcher Immunefi, told CoinDesk. “Phishing is a growing concern in crypto, as criminals see it as an effective way to steal user funds at scale and use social engineering for more sophisticated attacks on project infrastructure.”

Acuna is vulnerable again, this time at the mercy of the blockchain that was once his salvation after a terrifying ordeal in a fake prison in Mexico.

Working in secret

Acuna began working as a journalist in the 1990s – a career that exposed him to government censorship. false arrest and death threats.

His work on organized crime, elections and corruption was soon noticed by United Press International (UPI) and Reforma, where he took a deep dive into one of the world’s most notorious and violent drug cartels.

It is located in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, on the west coast from Los Mochis to Mazatlan. The fertile, mountainous region emerged as a hotbed of organized crime, leading to the creation of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s infamous Sinaloa Cartel.

Acuna’s coverage of the cartel eventually led to his independent work as a freelance journalist, with his work being picked up by the likes of the Associated Press and Reuters. This was as his career in Mexico reached a tumultuous crescendo.

The authorities heard one of Acuna’s stories about corruption and decided enough was enough. They accused him of hiding weapons belonging to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Acuna says he was tortured for 16 hours.

“One day I was thrown into a car with as much violence as you can imagine,” he says. – They sent a police commander known for torturing people and kidnapped me. For 16 hours they floated me, tied me up, cut off my circulation, and folded me back. At one point they told me: “Our families are neighbors. We will bring them one by one and kill them in front of you until they tell you where the gun is.”

Acuna was later sentenced to two years in prison on the charges – which Acuna believes were false – later overturned. He filed a complaint human rights lawsuit against the Mexican authorities.

Crypto rescue, or not

In 2017, Acuna cleaned up his troubled past and entered the incredibly interesting world of crypto, working as a public relations officer at payments firm Electroneum, a producer for BloxLive TV, and most recently in a public relations role at DePIN IOTEX.

His rigorous education prepared him for the crypto industry, which despite being embraced by the traditional financial sector, continues to struggle with the Wild West environment of its early days.

Although Acuña doesn’t have the most common history for those working in the crypto industry, it’s a reminder that the appeal of the crypto industry isn’t just speculative financial gain: it’s also an industry that checks the power of governments, banks, and elites. He turned to Acuña.

“The first day I started writing about crypto and blockchain, I thought, ‘Here’s the solution to all the issues of lack of free speech.’ Here is the solution to state corruption. This is finally something I can believe in and do with passion,” Acuna told CoinDesk.

Despite losing his savings, Acuna continues to work in the crypto industry, but cautions that he is far from mainstream.

“If we want mass adoption, it has to be continuous,” he said. Right now, the user experience is “anxiety. Every time I send crypto now, I’m like, ‘Did I do something wrong?’ Am I going to lose my money?” Every time'”.

If “we don’t get an app where all your crypto is in the same app and it doesn’t matter what horrible network it is, you can turn it into anything you want, convert it and send it, then I just won’t. see it” is flying.

This remains a major hurdle for the industry; Tech-savvy millennials know how to buy an asset from Ethereum, link it to Solana, and buy memecoins from Pump.fun before sending it to an exchange, but most normal people don’t.

“I don’t want to get out of crypto, I’m still excited about crypto,” Acuna said. “Is moving money always traumatic? Yes. But I love the industry.”