An alleged $100 million Ponzi scheme involving the top trader of the cryptocurrency exchange EmpiresX, situated in Florida, was pled guilty. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday that 28-year-old Joshua David Nicholas admitted to marketing a company-run trading bot with accomplices and making the premise that it combined artificial and human intelligence to maximize returns for investors. Authorities claim that instead of offering a valuable service, the defendants paid out rewards to investors using funds obtained from later investors. According to the DOJ, EmpiresX also failed to get the necessary exemptions from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to register its investment program as an offering. Charges For Conspirators Nicholas entered a guilty plea for conspiring to conduct securities fraud. The maximum sentence for him is five years in jail. Following a June indictment, DOJ investigators accused Nicholas and the company’s owners, Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves, of conspiring to engage in wire fraud and securities fraud. The latter two also face charges of planning an international money laundering scheme. The SEC indicted all three people on the same day as the DOJ’s indictment, claiming that they defrauded investors by presenting false claims of 1% daily earnings and misusing investor funds for personal use. Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, stated on Th...
