According to Foresight News, the US Department of Justice has charged an Australian national and a man from California with operating a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that defrauded victims of over $25 million. Court documents allege that the two men conspired to carry out a fraudulent scheme, enticing victims to invest in various trading programs that falsely promised to use artificial intelligence-powered trading robots to trade victims' investments in the cryptocurrency market and earn high-profit returns.
The court documents state that the duo promoted investment plans under various names, including Circle Society, Bitcoin Wealth Management, Omicron Trust, Mind Capital, and Cloud9Capital. However, they did not invest the victims' funds in cryptocurrency but instead misappropriated the funds to pay for personal expenses, such as private jet charters, luxury hotel stays, private mansion rentals, personal chefs, and private security.