Anthony Norman, the serial fraudster behind a decade-long string of collapsed pyramid schemes, was arrested in Sweden in late October on serious financial crime charges.

Swedish authorities apprehended Norman at a temporary residence in Saltsjö-Boo and seized his assets. The arrest came after prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into serious accounting crimes back in 2020, but only moved to detain him last week. Norman, who resides in Spain, was caught in the middle of a glassworks scheme where he pitched empty warehouses to investors.

The arrest gets murkier from there. Swedish prosecutors allegedly found connections between Norman and Foxtrot, a criminal network that emerged in Sweden during the late 2010s.

Norman's criminal resume stretches back a decade. BehindMLM first documented him in 2014 as CEO of ViralAngels, a short-lived pyramid scheme with securities fraud built into its structure. When that collapsed, he simply rebranded.

In January 2017, the Angel Business Club Ponzi emerged as ViralAngels 2.0. Norman didn't lead it publicly but ran operations through Angel Equity International, which he incorporated just as ViralAngels imploded. That scheme also fizzled fast.

Norman resurfaced in April 2019 with Wellmont Capital, acquiring the rotting corpse of John Barksdale's Ormeus Global Ponzi. He rebranded it as IQ Legacy, then fed its remains into The Sprinkle Group to launch the Liber8 token Ponzi. What happened next is murky—either Liber8 launched and collapsed immediately or never launched at all. A Wellmont spinoff called Wantage One, run through a Dutch shell company, was another quick collapse.

By early 2021, Norman had absorbed what remained of Wazzub and its stranded YEM token investors. This fed into Dragon Global Finance, yet another Ponzi that launched in early 2021. When Dragon Global Finance cratered in early 2022, Norman simply rebooted it as EQT Bank, controlling it through a shitcoin called Universal Pickle. Both collapsed by April 2022.

The pattern breaks after that. Norman appears to have pivoted from crypto MLM scams into real estate fraud and started working with Foxtrot.

Swedish law grants Norman "pretrial confidentiality," keeping most case details sealed. The prosecutor handling the case told Realtid she hopes to file an indictment before Christmas, though the two Swedish publications covering the arrest—Dagens Industri and Realtid—remain paywalled, limiting what details have reached the public.

🤖 Quick Answer

Who is Anthony Norman and what are the charges against him?
Anthony Norman is a serial fraudster arrested in Sweden in October on serious financial crime charges. He orchestrated multiple collapsed pyramid schemes over a decade, including a recent glassworks investment scam involving empty warehouses. Swedish prosecutors investigated him since 2020 for accounting crimes.

Where was Anthony Norman apprehended?
Swedish authorities arrested Norman at a temporary residence in Saltsjö-Boo in late October. Despite residing in Spain, he was detained following a preliminary investigation initiated by prosecutors in 2020 into serious accounting crimes related to his fraudulent schemes.

What connection exists between Norman and criminal networks?
Swedish prosecutors identified alleged connections between Anthony Norman and Foxtrot, a criminal network that emerged in Sweden during the late 2010s. These connections surfaced during the investigation into Norman's financial crimes and asset seizure operations.

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