Arrest of Indonesia’s ‘Crazy Rich Surabayan’ spotlights risk of robot-trading investment scams

Robot-trading scams, bearing hallmarks of a classic Ponzi scheme, typically lure victims with celebrity endorsement and unusually high initial returns

‘Crazy Rich Surabayan’ Wahyu Kenzo is accused of defrauding 25,000 people of a total of US$585 million on his robot-trading platform Auto Trade Gold

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“Crazy Rich Surabayan” Wahyu Kenzo, 36, was arrested on March 8 after his so-called “robot trading” platform collapsed. He is accused of defrauding 25,000 people of a total of US$585 million. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 2:00pm, 26 Mar 2023Updated: 2:43pm, 26 Mar 2023

At the height of his fame, Wahyu Kenzo was dubbed the “Crazy Rich Surabayan”, a name spun out from an Instagram feed buzzing with luxury, fast cars and handshakes with politicians and celebrities seemingly enchanted by his business acumen.

But Kenzo’s so-called robot-trading platform – Auto Trade Gold (ATG) – collapsed, and its billing as an artificial intelligence-powered tool scouring forex margins faster than humans was exposed as a lie after the flashy 36-year-old company director was arrested on March 8.

Kenzo is accused of defrauding 25,000 people of a total of US$585 million. But the real sum may be much higher, swindled from a pool of wealthy people, including investment managers, lured by the promise of 200 per cent returns every year. Financial experts say the victims fell for a trap that had all the hallmarks of a con artist’s classic Ponzi scheme.

Before his fall, Kenzo said ATG had more than 300,000 members. Police have received complaints from victims in the Indonesian diaspora and foreign nationals living as far as Europe and Japan, the UAE and the US.

Victims of his platform – one of a litany including Fin888, Evotrade, Copet, DNA Pro, Viral Blas, Fahrenheit and SMI that emerged in 2019 but is now synonymous with robot-trading fraud – said they fell for an old-fashioned con, thanks to its modern social-media makeover.

“Who would have thought it? [Kenzo’s] Instagram has a verified badge and he hobnobbed with high-ranking government officials and celebrities,” Mahayani, 42, an Indonesian who has lived and worked in Japan for the past 13 years, told This Week in Asia.

She invested US$82,000 in 2021, a quarter of which she had borrowed from a third party.