Star Trek fan and Eve player “Curzon Dax” is in hot water after he apparently earned 374 billion ISK game currency from in-game investors and then ran off with the funds.

Dax carried out an investment scam claimed it would earn players a returns of 200 percent on any investment, and the 374 billion he amassed ($14,000 real-world equivalent), was partially spent on upgrading his ship.

All a case for the real world plod, however Dax quit the game and is handing over the super-duper ship and coin to another player who has “worked hard to make EVE a great game”.“ He posted that while he was leaving EVE all the wealth and officer gear he nicked an unidentified recipient who knows who he/she is already is going to get… well, everything.

“They’ve worked hard to make EVE a great game, and my riches are going to be a salary for them that is long overdue, although they’re probably rich enough already to make it pointless.”

Eve has had online scandals before, and it will be interesting to see how this one pans out. There is already case law which means that the money stolen from investors counts as “real” for the purposes of coppers trying to frame a charge against Dax. The fact that he gave the money away will not stop the long arm of the law fingering his collar through cyber-space.