The U.S. Division of Justice has sentenced Dwayne Golden, 57, of Pennsylvania to 97 months in jail for orchestrating a fraudulent crypto funding scheme that stole over $40 million from buyers.
Golden operated a number of pretend digital asset corporations — together with EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin — alongside co-conspirators Gregory Aggesen and Marquis Demacking Egerton. The schemes ran between April and August 2017, promising buyers assured returns via alleged cryptocurrency buying and selling and abroad operations.
In actuality, not one of the firms carried out any authentic crypto buying and selling. As a substitute, the trio used new investor funds to repay earlier contributors or divert funds for private use — a basic Ponzi construction, based on the DOJ.
“Dwayne Golden and his co-conspirators took benefit of investor curiosity in thrilling new applied sciences to perpetrate a fraud scheme that’s as previous as time,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer Joseph Nocella. “Not one of the firms supplied actual companies. There was no precise buying and selling exercise behind the scenes — solely deception.”
The DOJ emphasised that the defendants misused the hype surrounding crypto innovation to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers. Funds have been channeled via shell accounts, and no significant enterprise operations ever existed.
Golden’s sentencing is a part of a broader crackdown on fraudulent crypto ventures that depend on exaggerated guarantees and non-transparent practices. Investigations into related schemes stay ongoing.