Empires X Trader Pleads Guilty In $100M
Empires X Traders
Modified Date:- Published Date:-Categories: Cryptocurrency
Empires X TraderPleads Guilty In $100M
CryptoFraud Empires XTrader in Hot Soup Joshua David Nicholas, 28, was the “head trader” forthe trading firm, Empires X, which was launched in late 2020 and wasadvertised to unsuspecting investors as a legitimate bitcoin (BTC) trading andcrypto investment platform.
Nicolasand Empire Xfounders Emerson Sousa Pires and Flavio Mendes Goncalves, both 33, promisedinvestors that their proprietary trading bot would use artificial and humanintelligence to maximize profits for investors, with a guarantee of up to onecent per day. uses. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),the bot did not exist and they only used manual trading, resulting in "significantlosses".
This led tothe SEC filing civil fraud charges against the group in June 2022. In a classicPonzi scheme MO, early investors were paid with money received from lateinvestors. The SEC reported that the rest of the money was used "tolease a Lamborghini, make purchases at Tiffany & Co., pay for another home,and more."
The DOJ saidthat Empires X has never registered its investment program as anoffering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor is it exemptedfrom doing so. Nichols pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commitsecurities fraud, which carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.
Both Piersand Goncalves have been charged with one charge each of conspiracy to commitwire fraud and one charge each of conspiracy to commit security fraud. He facesup to 45 years in prison.
Victimsurged to speak while the FBI Miami Field Office and HSI's Miami Field Officeare investigating the case, The Justice Department has encouraged all targetinvestors of the Empires X scheme to identify themselves as potentialvictims and submit victim impact statements. Ponzi schemes have become somewhatprevalent in the crypto sector recently. Earlier last month, the SEC filedcharges against the team behind Forsage, alleging that they ran a cryptopyramid and Ponzi scheme, which may have resulted in losses for investorstotaling more than $300 million globally.
There havebeen uncertainties over which cryptocurrency assets and cryptocompanies should be considered securities. The SEC Boss, Gary Genslerrecently stated that he’s in support of cryptocurrencies being handledby the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, rather than the SEC.
In a pleads deal, Joshua David Nicholas pled guilty to securities fraud after selling unregistered digital coins, only to engage in massive wash trading immediately afterward.