{"id":7109,"date":"2022-09-13T20:19:52","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T20:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=7109"},"modified":"2022-09-13T20:19:53","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T20:19:53","slug":"head-trader-of-100m-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-pleads-guilty-in-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/?p=7109","title":{"rendered":"Head Trader of $100M Global Crypto Ponzi Scheme Pleads Guilty in US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"crypto\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p><strong>The head trader of a $100 million global cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme has pleaded guilty and is facing up to five years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). \u201cThe defendants allegedly misappropriated large sums of investors\u2019 money to lease a Lamborghini, shop at Tiffany &amp; Co., make a payment on a second home, and more.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Empiresx\u2019s Head Trader Pleads Guilty<\/h2>\n<p>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that Joshua David Nicholas has pleaded guilty for his role as the \u201chead trader\u201d in a \u201cglobal cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme that amassed approximately $100 million from investors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old Florida man admitted that he and others made numerous misrepresentations about Empiresx, a purported cryptocurrency platform, to investors, including promising \u201cguaranteed\u201d returns and claiming that Empiresx operated a trading bot that used artificial and human intelligence to maximize profitability for investors.<\/p>\n<p>The DOJ detailed:<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Empiresx operated a Ponzi scheme by paying earlier investors with money obtained from later Empiresx investors.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also charged Nicholas along with Empiresx founders Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves, both of Brazil, in June with violating the registration and anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.<\/p>\n<p>Noting that Empiresx never registered its investment program with the SEC, the securities regulator said:<\/p>\n<p>The bot was fake, Nicholas\u2019 trading resulted in significant losses, and the defendants only transferred a small portion of investors\u2019 funds to Empiresx\u2019s brokerage account.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInstead, the defendants allegedly misappropriated large sums of investors\u2019 money to lease a Lamborghini, shop at Tiffany &amp; Co., make a payment on a second home, and more,\u201d the SEC described.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department indicted all three men in June with \u201cone count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.\u201d Pires and Goncalves were also charged with \u201cconspiracy to commit international money laundering.\u201d According to the indictment, the pair laundered investors\u2019 funds through a foreign-based cryptocurrency exchange.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department noted:<\/p>\n<p>Nicholas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Tags in this story<\/p>\n<p>Crypto Fraud, Crypto Ponzi, crypto ponzi scheme, DOJ, Empiresx, Empiresx crypto, Empiresx cryptocurrency, Empiresx Doj, fraudulent trading bot, head trader, Ponzi Scheme, trading bot<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Do you think Nicholas should go to prison for five years for his role in the Empiresx crypto Ponzi scheme? Let us know in the comments section below.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kevin Helms <\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body__author__info__about\">\nA student of Austrian Economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open-source systems, network effects and the intersection between economics and cryptography.<\/p>\n<p><i class=\"td-icon-font td-icon-mail-1\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"images_credits\"><em>Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Disclaimer<\/strong>: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.<\/p>\n<p>More Popular NewsIn Case You Missed It<\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\namzn_assoc_placement = \"adunit0\";\r\namzn_assoc_tracking_id = \"totafreearti-20\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_mode = \"search\";\r\namzn_assoc_ad_type = \"smart\";\r\namzn_assoc_marketplace = \"amazon\";\r\namzn_assoc_region = \"US\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_search_phrase = \"bitcoin\";\r\namzn_assoc_default_category = \"All\";\r\namzn_assoc_search_bar = \"false\";\r\namzn_assoc_title = \"\";\r\namzn_assoc_rows =\"1\";\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"\/\/z-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/onejs?MarketPlace=US\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.bitcoin.com\/head-trader-of-100m-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-pleads-guilty-in-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The head trader of a $100 million global cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme has pleaded guilty and is facing up to five years in prison, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). \u201cThe defendants allegedly misappropriated large sums of investors\u2019 money to lease a Lamborghini, shop at Tiffany &amp; Co., make a payment on a second [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7111,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7109\/revisions\/7111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cryptoheretostay.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}