A 57-year-old man from the US has been sentenced to nearly eight years in prison for leading a fake cryptocurrency investment scheme that took over $40 million from investors.
Dwayne Golden received a 97-month prison term from a federal judge in Brooklyn, following a fraud case involving EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin.
The Department of Justice stated in a statement that Golden and his business partners tricked people by claiming their companies were involved in global crypto trading and promised guaranteed profits.
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These companies operated for a few months in 2017, between April and August. After they shut down, Golden and his co-founders tried to block investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and a federal grand jury. They were accused of hiding or destroying evidence and giving false statements to investigators.
US Attorney Joseph Nocella said the companies did not provide any real services, and none of them ever carried out any cryptocurrency trades as claimed. He added that the group exploited people’s interest in new technology to gain their trust and steal their money.
Golden was also ordered to give up around $2.46 million. One of the others involved, William White, has already been sentenced to 30 months in prison. The other two, Gregory Aggesen and Marquis Egerton, are still waiting for their sentences.
FBI Assistant Director Christopher Raia described Golden’s actions as dishonest and said the sentence should serve as a warning to others who plan to commit similar crimes.
Currently, authorities are asking people who lost money in the scam to submit their claims through the FBI’s official website for restitution.
Recently, Valeria Fedyakina, who called herself “Bitmama”, was sentenced to seven years in prison for leading a large-scale but short-lived Bitcoin
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