The core members of a multi-level marketing company are recently accused by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of running a $295 million crypto Ponzi fraud.
The SEC has filed charges against Jonathan Tetreault, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, Joff Paradise, and Douver Torres Braga for their participation in Trade Coin Club, which amassed over 80,000 bitcoin (BTC) from more than 100,000 investors.
The company’s founder, Braga, is accused of misleading investors by claiming they could use a bot to produce a daily income of 0.35% on their cryptocurrencies. However, he then used those funds to pay Paradise, Taylor, Tetreault, and himself.
The head of the Enforcement Division’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit David Hirsch said that the firm’s founder has exploited Trade Coin Club to swindle hundreds of millions from investors worldwide and benefit himself by abusing their interest in purchasing virtual assets.
The SEC and other regulatory agencies are accustomed to dealing with cryptocurrency-related frauds such as Ponzi schemes.
Previously, the SEC accused 11 people connected to Forsage, an Ethereum decentralized application that deceived investors of above $300 million. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against two men in May for scamming cryptocurrency investors out of $44 million via YouTube videos.
