Joshua David Nicholas, founder of the EmpiresX cryptocurrency platform that defrauded investors of about $100 million, has pleaded guilty to one of the charges.
According to a statement on the US Department of Justice website, Florida resident Joshua David Nicholas referred to himself as the “chief trader” of the EmpiresX platform. His accomplices Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves told investors that the site uses the latest trading bot with artificial intelligence (AI), and promised a daily profit of 1% of the invested funds.
In July, US prosecutors filed charges against Nicholas and his associates. The Ministry of Justice claims that in addition to defrauding investors, they were engaged in unregistered sale of securities and money laundering through cryptocurrencies. Nicholas admitted that he fraudulently promoted EmpiresX by giving investors false information about “guaranteed” returns and a trading bot that didn’t exist. The money received from late investors went to people who managed to enter the crypto-currency scheme before others.
In addition, despite claims of regulatory registration, EmpiresX has never taken the matter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Given that Nicholas pleaded guilty to one count, he faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
“Technology has changed, but crime has remained the same, it’s just that now scammers are engaged in illegal activities in the field of cryptocurrencies. This case should be a warning to anyone who is trying to illegally profit from the gullibility of investors,” added US Homeland Security Special Agent Anthony Salisbury.
Earlier, the US Department of Justice appealed to regulators around the world, urging them to tighten their oversight of compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) rules and Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.
Source: Bits
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
