The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has detailed federal civil enforcement action charging four persons with fraud for operating Ponzi schemes involving bitcoin.
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According to the CFTC’s complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, the agency alleges Dwayne Golden of Florida, Jatin Patel of India, Marquis Egerton of North Carolina, and Gregory Aggesen of New York fraudulently solicited over $44 million of investments and misappropriated millions of dollars.
Golden, Patel, and Egerton operated the websites Empowercoin and Ecoinplus, through which they fraudulently solicited individuals of more than $23 million of bitcoin, the CFTC alleges in the complaint, further alleging Golden, Patel, Aggesen, and an accomplice operated the website JetCoin, through which they fraudulently solicited individuals of more than $21 million of bitcoin.
“This case illustrates how fraudsters never tire of devising schemes to separate people from their hard-earned money, and digital asset frauds are no exception,” Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle said.
The complaint also alleges the websites promised customers professionals would trade their bitcoin and guaranteed the resulting profits would be paid daily. The complaint indicates the customers’ bitcoin were either misappropriated by the defendants and accomplice or used to make supposed profit payments to other customers that were Ponzi payments.
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