The police said the 46-year-oild suspect “pretended to sell the apps and programmes through the site” in a pyramid scheme, where new members could earn money by attracting even more people to join the scheme.

The police told reporters that the members also had the “possibility of playing the same role in a supposed pyramid of earnings", but it was the suspect who earned with the business, conning the others out of €15 million.

The police communiqué said that “the investigations were triggered by the US authorities into the activity of the international platform used by the suspect, which led to the Internet spaces he used being closed down in 2014".

The suspect has been charged with qualified fraud, qualified tax fraud and money laundering. He had been before a judge and ordered to hand over his passport and report in to a police station every day.