Cases by industry
Crypto & digital assets Ponzi schemes
60 cases announced 2013–2026, involving about $10.3B in reported investor money. Most cases came from Florida, New York and Texas.
The largest by reported amount: HyperFund ($1.7B, 2024). Charges are allegations unless a court has entered a conviction or judgment.
Pitch phrases seen in these cases
- “guaranteed”
- “risk free”
- “doubling of those investments within six months”
- “guaranteed daily returns”
- “traded by expert traders, proprietary algorithms, and artificial intelligence”
- “up to 15% weekly returns”
- “100% money-back guarantee”
- “hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency reserves”
Cases
| Date | Case | Location | Industry | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 25, 2026 | Cash FX Group S.A., The Conversion Pros Inc. Huascar Jose Lopez Castillo, Ronald Pope, Justin Halladay |
Panama | Crypto & digital assets | $950M |
| Aug 24, 2026 | Profit Connect Brent C. Kovar |
Las Vegas, NV | Crypto & digital assets | $24M |
| Aug 17, 2026 | The Crypto Program Edward Zimbardi |
Flowery Branch, GA | Crypto & digital assets | $165M |
| Aug 10, 2026 | Daryl F. Heller | Lititz, PA | Crypto & digital assets | $770M |
| Jul 16, 2026 | Benjamin Paul Wiener | Sioux Falls, SD | Crypto & digital assets | $20M |
| Jul 7, 2026 | Argent Capital Management LLC Trevor L. Vernon |
Franklin, NC | Crypto & digital assets | $14M |
| Jun 12, 2026 | Bright with Silver Inc. Stanley Pophal |
Wausau, WI | Crypto & digital assets | $14.2M |
| Jun 12, 2026 | Star Credit Holdings Misam M. Abidi |
Nolensville, TN | Crypto & digital assets | $1.9M |
| May 29, 2026 | Privvy Investments LLC, Gateway Digital Investments Nathan Fuller |
Cypress, TX | Crypto & digital assets | $12.3M |
| Feb 24, 2026 | Goliath Ventures (formerly Gen-Z Venture Firm) Christopher Alexander Delgado |
Apopka, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $328M |
| Feb 12, 2026 | Praetorian Group International Ramil Ventura Palafox |
Alexandria, VA | Crypto & digital assets | $201M |
| Dec 18, 2025 | VBit Technologies Corp. Danh C. Vo |
Philadelphia, PA | Crypto & digital assets | $95.6M |
| Dec 10, 2025 | Nathan Gauvin | Sudbury, Canada | Crypto & digital assets | $18.1M |
| Nov 19, 2025 | Geosyn Mining LLC Caleb Ward |
Fort Worth, TX | Crypto & digital assets | $4.5M |
| Sep 9, 2025 | Norada Capital Management Marco Giovanni Santarelli |
Laguna Niguel, CA | Crypto & digital assets | $62.5M |
| Jan 10, 2025 | Wolf Capital Crypto Trading LLC Travis Ford |
Glenpool, OK | Crypto & digital assets | $9.4M |
| Dec 18, 2024 | Trage Technologies Limited Graeme Gary Hearn, Michael Holloway, Eric Ture Muhammad |
Fairburn, GA | Crypto & digital assets | $79M |
| Dec 10, 2024 | Solanofi, Solano Partners Ltd., Solano Capital Investments Francier Obando Pinillo |
Pasco, WA | Crypto & digital assets | $5.9M |
| Oct 28, 2024 | NOLA FX Capital Management LLC, Meteor LLC, NOLA FX Fund LLC Michael Brian DePetrillo |
New Orleans, LA | Crypto & digital assets | $9.2M |
| Aug 28, 2024 | GCZ Global LLC, Triten Financial Group LLC Jonathan Adam, Tanner Adam |
Angleton, TX | Crypto & digital assets | $60M |
| Aug 12, 2024 | NovaTech Ltd. Cynthia Petion, Eddy Petion |
Wellington, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $650M |
| May 16, 2024 | Vandelay Contracting Corp., Build Strong Homes LLC Thomas John Sfraga (aka TJ Stone) |
Brooklyn, NY | Crypto & digital assets | $1.3M |
| May 1, 2024 | Maxben Group Idin Dalpour |
New York, NY | Crypto & digital assets | $43M |
| Jan 30, 2024 | HyperFund Xue Samuel Lee (aka Sam Lee), Brenda Indah Chunga (aka Bitcoin Beautee) |
Severna Park, MD | Crypto & digital assets | $1.7B |
| Jan 19, 2024 | USI Tech Horst Jicha |
Germany | Crypto & digital assets | $150M |
| Sep 22, 2023 | Empirex Capital LLC Rafael Alberto Vargas Gonzalez (aka Rafael Vargas) |
Miami, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $6.6M |
| Jul 25, 2023 | Blessings of God Thru Crypto Michael Griffis, Amanda Griffis |
Clarksville, TN | Crypto & digital assets | $6M |
| Apr 11, 2023 | Rashawn Russell | Brooklyn, NY | Crypto & digital assets | $1.5M |
| Mar 6, 2023 | BKCoin Management LLC Min Woo Kang (aka Kevin Kang) |
Miami, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $100M |
| Feb 16, 2023 | Vista Network Technologies Armen Temurian |
Glendale, CA | Crypto & digital assets | $7M |
| Dec 14, 2022 | IcomTech David Carmona, Marco Ruiz Ochoa, Moses Valdez, Juan Arellano, David Brend, Gustavo Rodriguez |
Queens, NY | Crypto & digital assets | $1M |
| Dec 14, 2022 | Forcount (later Weltsys) Antonia Perez Hernandez, Francisley da Silva, Juan Tacuri |
Tampa, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $8.4M |
| Nov 21, 2022 | HashFlare, Polybius Bank Sergei Potapenko, Ivan Turogin |
Tallinn, Estonia | Crypto & digital assets | $575M |
| Nov 18, 2022 | Rathnakishore Giri | New Albany, OH | Crypto & digital assets | $10M |
| Nov 4, 2022 | Trade Coin Club Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, Jonathan Tetreault |
FL | Crypto & digital assets | $295M |
| Oct 3, 2022 | CryptoFX LLC, CBT Group LLC Ismael Zarco Sanchez, Mauricio Chavez, Giorgio Benvenuto |
Houston, TX | Crypto & digital assets | $300M |
| Aug 1, 2022 | Forsage Olena Oblamska (aka Lola Ferrari), Vladimir Okhotnikov, Mikhail Sergeev, Sergey Maslakov, Cheri Beth Bowen, Ronald R. Deering, Samuel D. Ellis, Mark F. Hamlin, Carlos L. Martinez, Alisha R. Shepperd, Sarah L. Theissen |
Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia | Crypto & digital assets | $340M |
| Jun 30, 2022 | EmpiresX Joshua David Nicholas, Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves |
Stuart, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $100M |
| Jun 30, 2022 | Mirror Trading International Proprietary Limited Cornelius Johannes Steynberg |
Stellenbosch, South Africa | Crypto & digital assets | $1.7B |
| May 12, 2022 | EminiFX Inc. Eddy Alexandre |
Valley Stream, NY | Crypto & digital assets | $248M |
| May 6, 2022 | Mining Capital Coin Luiz Capuci Jr. |
Port St. Lucie, FL | Crypto & digital assets | $62M |
| Oct 20, 2021 | Kikit & Mess Investments LLC Abner Alejandro Tinoco |
El Paso, TX | Crypto & digital assets | $3.9M |
| Jan 26, 2021 | Jeremy Spence (aka Coin Signals) | Bristol, RI | Crypto & digital assets | $5M |
| Dec 28, 2020 | Virgil Sigma Fund LP, Virgil Capital LLC, VQR Partners LLC Stefan Qin |
New York, NY | Crypto & digital assets | $90M |
| Oct 13, 2020 | Roaring Investments Inc Alexander S. Rowland |
Penns Grove, NJ | Crypto & digital assets | $2.1M |
| Aug 28, 2020 | 1st Million LLC, Smart Partners LLC, Access to Assets LLC Dennis Mbongeni Jali, John Erasmus Frimpong, Arley Ray Johnson |
MD | Crypto & digital assets | $28M |
| Aug 19, 2020 | AirBit Club Gutemberg dos Santos, Pablo Renato Rodriguez, Scott Hughes, Cecilia Millan, Jackie Aguilar |
Panama City, Panama | Crypto & digital assets | $20M |
| Aug 3, 2020 | Banana.Fund Richard Matthew John O'Neill (aka Jo Cook) |
England | Crypto & digital assets | $7.1M |
| Jun 5, 2020 | MMT Distribution LLC, R & D Global LLC Daniel F. Putnam, Jean Paul Ramirez Rico, Angel A. Rodriguez |
UT | Crypto & digital assets | $12M |
| Feb 14, 2020 | Venture Capital Investments Ltd. Breonna Clark |
Denver, CO | Crypto & digital assets | $534,829 |
| Feb 12, 2020 | Q3 Trading Club, Q3 I LP Michael W. Ackerman, James A. Seijas, Quan Tran |
Sheffield Lake, OH | Crypto & digital assets | $33M |
| Feb 5, 2020 | Zima Digital Assets LLC John Michael Caruso, Zachary Salter |
Scottsdale, AZ | Crypto & digital assets | $7.5M |
| Dec 10, 2019 | BitClub Network Matthew Brent Goettsche, Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, Joseph Frank Abel, Silviu Catalin Balaci |
Lafayette, CO | Crypto & digital assets | $722M |
| Oct 16, 2019 | David Gilbert Saffron, Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr. | Las Vegas, NV | Crypto & digital assets | $12M |
| Jun 18, 2019 | Control-Finance Limited Benjamin Reynolds |
NY | Crypto & digital assets | $147M |
| May 21, 2019 | Jose Angel Aman, Harold Seigel, Jonathan H. Seigel | FL | Crypto & digital assets | $30M |
| Mar 25, 2019 | Daniel Todd Levine | Castle Rock, CO | Crypto & digital assets | $2M |
| Jan 19, 2018 | The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, Real Trade Profits Dillon Michael Dean |
Longmont, CO | Crypto & digital assets | $1.1M |
| Dec 1, 2015 | GAW Miners, ZenMiner, Paycoin Homero Joshua Garza |
Somers, CT | Crypto & digital assets | $20M |
| Jul 23, 2013 | Bitcoin Savings and Trust Trendon T. Shavers |
McKinney, TX | Crypto & digital assets | $4.5M |