{"id":83068,"date":"2022-11-07T01:04:28","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T06:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hedgeco.net\/news\/?p=83068"},"modified":"2022-11-07T00:50:17","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T05:50:17","slug":"sec-charges-creator-of-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-and-three-us-promoters-in-connection-with-295-million-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/11\/2022\/sec-charges-creator-of-global-crypto-ponzi-scheme-and-three-us-promoters-in-connection-with-295-million-fraud.html","title":{"rendered":"SEC Charges Creator of Global Crypto Ponzi Scheme and Three US Promoters in Connection with $295 Million Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against <strong>Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana<\/strong> Taylor, and J<strong>onathan Tetreault<\/strong> for their roles in Trade Coin Club, a fraudulent crypto Ponzi scheme that raised more than 82,000 bitcoin, valued at <strong>$295 million<\/strong> at the time, from more than 100,000 investors worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the SEC\u2019s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Braga created and controlled Trade Coin Club, a multi-level marketing program that operated from 2016 through 2018 and promised profits from the trading activities of a purported crypto asset trading bot. The SEC alleges that Braga and Paradise lured investors with false representations that the bot made \u201cmillions of microtransactions\u201d every second, and that investors would receive minimum returns of 0.35 percent daily. However, instead of deploying investor funds for the purported trading bot, Braga allegedly siphoned off investor funds for his own benefit and to pay a network of worldwide Trade Coin Club promoters, including Paradise, Taylor, and Tetreault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SEC further alleges that Trade Coin Club operated as a Ponzi scheme and that investor withdrawals came entirely from deposits made by investors, not from any crypto asset trading activity by a bot or otherwise. The complaint further alleges that Braga personally received at least 8,396 bitcoin of the amounts invested (worth $55 million at the time), Paradise received 238 bitcoin (worth more than $1.4 million at the time), Taylor received 735 bitcoin (worth more than $2.6 million at the time), and Tetreault received 158 bitcoin (worth more than $625,000 at the time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe allege that Braga used Trade Coin Club to steal hundreds of millions from investors around the world and enrich himself by exploiting their interest in investing in digital assets,\u201d said David Hirsch, Chief of the Enforcement Division\u2019s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit. \u201cTo ensure our markets are fair and safe,&nbsp;we will continue to use&nbsp;blockchain tracing and analytical tools to aid us in the pursuit of individuals who perpetrate securities fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SEC\u2019s complaint alleges that Braga violated the antifraud and securities registration provisions, Paradise violated the antifraud, securities registration, and broker-dealer registration provisions, and Taylor violated the securities and broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws. The complaint seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties. The SEC filed a second complaint alleging that Jonathan Tetreault violated the securities and broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws. Without admitting or denying the allegations, Tetreault agreed to settle the SEC\u2019s charges. The settlement is subject to Court approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SEC\u2019s investigation was conducted by Serafima K. McTigue of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit and Victor Hong of the San Francisco Regional Office. The case was supervised by Steven Buchholz, Mr. Hirsch, and Jorge G. Tenreiro of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit. The litigation is being conducted by John Han of the San Francisco Regional Office and Ms. McTigue. The Commission appreciates the assistance of Brazil\u2019s Comiss\u00e3o de Valores Mobil\u00e1rios, Portugal\u2019s Comiss\u00e3o do Mercado de Valores Mobili\u00e1rios, the Finland Financial Supervision Authority, and the Korea Financial Services Commission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tetreault for their roles in Trade Coin Club, a fraudulent crypto Ponzi scheme that raised more than 82,000 bitcoin, valued [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3,16048,16047],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hedgeco-networks-press-releases","category-hedgeco-news","category-hedgecovest-news","category-insider-trading-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83069,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83068\/revisions\/83069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hedgeco.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}