SEC Charges Trade Coin Club Founders of Running $295M Ponzi Scheme
SEC Charges Trade Coin Club Founder
The Trade Coin Club, which acquired over 80,000 bitcoin (BTC) from over 100,000 investors, is where Joff Paradise, Douver Torres Braga, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tetreault are being charged by the SEC. The company's founder, Braga, is accused of misleading investors by claiming they could employ a bot to produce daily profits of 0.35% on their cryptocurrency. However, he used this money to pay Paradise, Taylor, Tetreault, and himself.
The head of the Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit of the SEC, David Hirsch, released a statement that the company claimed Braga exploited Trade Coin Club to take hundreds of millions from individuals worldwide. They profit by taking advantage of their enthusiasm for investing in virtual assets.
Complaints By SEC
According to the SEC's petition, Braga broke the federal securities regulations' antifraud and securities licensing sections, Paradise did as well as the antifraud, securities registration, and broker-dealer registration provisions, and Taylor did as well. The lawsuit claims forfeiture, civil fines, and legal remedies.
In a second complaint, the SEC charged Jonathan Tetreault with breaking the federal securities laws' requirements for broker-dealer certification and security registration. Tetreault consented to resolve the SEC's complaints without acknowledging or disputing the claims. The court must approve the deal.
Crypto-Related Ponzi Schemes
The SEC and other regulatory agencies are not unfamiliar with cryptocurrency-related Ponzi schemes. In August, the SEC sued 11 people connected to Forsage, an Ethereum dapp that defrauded investors of over $300 million. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed charges against two men in May for defrauding $44 million in cryptocurrency investors using YouTube videos by deception.
