Manuel Batista, a key figure in the EXW Wallet Ponzi scheme, was arrested in Dubai on the night of December 1–2, 2025, per Kleine Zeitung and Krypto-X.biz. A Dubai court ordered his detention pending trial on December 12, 2025, following a woman’s complaint of physical assault and injury from December 2024, per. Batista, an Italian national from South Tyrol, has faced prior Dubai justice system encounters over debts to “business partners,” but settled them previously, per. This time, bail was rejected.
Batista is accused of being a mastermind in the EXW Wallet scam, an MLM crypto Ponzi launched in 2019 with co-founders Benjamin Herzog and Pirmin Troger, defrauding investors of €20–25 million, per. Austrian authorities convicted Herzog and Troger to five years each in 2024, but Batista remains a fugitive on fraud, money laundering, and criminal organization charges. EXW promised 0.1–0.32% daily returns, collapsing in 2020 and rebooting as Exchange World.
Benjamin Herzog, EXW founder, fled to Dubai in November 2025 during a prison furlough after his October 2024 sentencing, per. Facing additional PrivaFund charges (€12M losses), Herzog’s flight questions the Austrian authorities’ risk assessment, per. PrivaFund, another MLM Ponzi, links to EXW, with no confirmed recoveries.
The EXW saga, affecting 40,000+ investors, highlights MLM crypto fraud vulnerabilities, per. Bitcoin (BTC) ($88,650) and Ethereum (ETH) ($2,900) remain stable, per CoinMarketCap, but such cases erode trust. Investors should verify via sec.gov or bafin.de and avoid MLM schemes. Diversify into USDC with stop-losses below BTC’s $85,000, per TradingView. Follow @TheBlock__ on X for updates. Batista’s arrest may aid extradition, but Dubai’s role as a haven persists.
