Alleged global crypto scheme defrauds investors of millions
A South Florida federal grand jury has indicted three men in connection with a global cryptocurrency scheme that took in around $100 million from investors.
Emerson Pires, 33, Flavio Goncalves, 33, and Joshua David Nicholas, 28, were charged on Thursday with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Pires and Goncalves were also charged with conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
Pires and Goncalves founded a crypto investment platform called EmpiresX in late 2020, fraudulently promoting it and deceiving investors about a trading “bot” that would guarantee returns, according to the indictment.
Nicholas, a South Floridian and the company’s head trader, helped with promotion, while Pires and Goncalves, both from Brazil, laundered investments through a foreign cryptocurrency exchange and paid earlier investors with money from later ones in a Ponzi-style scheme, the indictment says.
According to a complaint from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, by November 2021 Empires Consulting stopped honoring withdrawal requests and since then most investors haven’t gotten their requested withdrawals.
Homeland Security agents and the FBI are investigating the case.
“The technology has changed, but the crime remains the same,” said George L. Piro, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Miami office in a statement. “Unscrupulous fraudsters are nothing new to the investment world. What’s changing is they are now pushing their criminal activity into the cryptocurrency realm.“
