Dwayne Golden, Gregory Aggesen, Marquis Demacking Egerton (aka Mardy Eger) and William White have been indicted.
Their indictment pertains to the working of a number of MLM crypto Ponzi schemes.
A fifth co conspirator is redacted within the indictment. Based mostly on parallel civil proceedings filed by the CFTC, I imagine that is Jatin Patel.
Patel is probably going redacted on account of him not being arrested but.
Dwayne Golden (proper) and Mardy Eger are US residents residing in Florida and North Carolina respectively.
BehindMLM first documented Golden and Eger working Ponzi schemes with Blue Fowl Bids.
Blue Fowl Bids launched in 2012 as a clone of the notorious Zeek Rewards Ponzi scheme.
After Blue Fowl Bids Egar (proper) continued to work with Golden however in secret.
Dwayne Golden went on to entrance Ingreso Cybernetico, 1×2 Advertising and marketing Suite, Xtreme Coin and Du It Bitcoin Community. Golden was additionally a part of James Wards’ Sports activities Buying and selling BTC Ponzi.
Greg Aggesen is a US citizen residing in New York. Aggesen final featured on BehindMLM in June 2021, because the proprietor of Omega Digital.
Omega Digital was a reboot of Aggesen’s collapsed AutoBTC Builder Ponzi scheme.
Earlier than AutoBTC Aggesen (proper) was a promoter of JetCoin, one other Ponzi scheme.
William White and Jatin Patel I’m not conversant in. White is a US citizen residing in Pennsylvania. The CFTC’s grievance identifies Patel as an Indian nationwide.
Golden, Egar, Aggesen and Patel stand accused of launching “a collection of fraudulent schemes” between April 2017 and August 2017.
These are EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, JetCoin and JetCoin 2.0.
The above Ponzi schemes have been marketed
on false guarantees that the buyers’ belongings could be invested in Bitcoin, that Bitcoin could be traded by these corporations on behalf of the buyers and that the buyers would earn giant returns on account of that buying and selling exercise.
As a substitute,
the businesses collapsed shortly after receiving the buyers’ belongings, with out the businesses having engaged in buying and selling exercise.
Dwayne Golden, Mardy Eger and Jatin Patel are credited with teaming as much as run EmpowerCoin and ECoinPlus.
Golden and Eger put the scams collectively, Patel was the tech man in India. ECoinPlus was a reboot of EmpowerCoin, each ran the identical backend script.
Aggesen and an unnamed co-conspirator joined the trio to launch JetCoin.
The identical backend script used to run the earlier Ponzis was recycled once more.
When the short-lived scams collapsed, Golden, Eger, Aggesen and Patel trotted out the acquainted “technical difficulties” and “we acquired hacked!” excuses.
All up the 4 Ponzi schemes took in $44.9 million.
Dwayne Golden, Gregory Aggesen, Marquis Demacking Egerton, Jatin Patel and Co-Conspirator #1 took investor proceeds earlier than buyers obtain funds.
Golden and Patel maintained unique entry to the Bitcoin from buyers and sometimes siphoned bitcoin funds off the highest earlier than paying buyers.
As JetCoin was collapsing for a second time, Aggesen started to fret about US regulators coming after him.
Particularly, Aggesen requested Golden for steering on the right way to deal with the FBI if he was approached by FBI brokers and questioned about JetCoin.
In February 2018, the FTC filed swimsuit towards JetCoin Grasp Distributor Scott Chandler.
The case led to the FTC serving Aggesen with a subpoena in June 2018. The subpoena sought “testimony and paperwork associated to JetCoin”.
Upon being served, Aggesen and Golden had William White delete JetCoin proof from Aggesen’s laptop computer.
In June 2018, appearing on Aggesen’s behalf, White despatched a laptop computer to the FTC purporting to be Aggesen’s laptop computer.
A forensic examination of this laptop computer revealed it had been tampered with and data had been deleted.
William White would go on to speak straight with the FTC, offering them with
falsehoods (that) have been particularly designed to hinder any investigation into JetCoin and stop the deposition of … Gregory Aggesen.
For causes that aren’t specified, the FTC dropped Aggesen’s deposition.
The indictment attracts consideration to the obstructory conduct, alleging it was achieved “in anticipation of a prison investigation”.
In or about June 2018, across the time that White was erasing info from the laptop computer, Aggesen despatched a message to Co-Conspirator #1 stating that the laptop computer wanted to be erased earlier than regulation enforcement searched his home.
In one other message, Aggesen instructed Co-Conspirator #1 that Golden and White suggested him that regulation enforcement would wish a court docket order to evaluation his mobile phone.
The FBI ultimately served Addesen a grand jury subpoena in June 2021.
Amongst different issues (the subpoena requested) any and all information associated to EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus and JetCoin.
The indictment ends noting William White went on make
materially false and deceptive statements … to the USA Lawyer’s Workplace for the Japanese District of New York on behalf of Aggesen.
The indictment costs the defendants with eleven counts of fraud:
- conspiracy to commit wire fraud (Golden, Aggesen, Eger and Patel);
- wire fraud, EmpowerCoin/ECoinPlus (Golden, Eger and Patel);
- wire fraud, JetCoin (Golden, Aggesen, Patel);
- conspiracy to commit cash laundering, promotion (Golden, Aggesen, Eger, Patel);
- conspiracy to commit cash laundering, concealment (Golden, Eger, Patel);
- cash laundering, illegal financial transactions (Golden, Aggesen, Eger, Patel);
- conspiracy to hinder justice (Golden, Aggesen, White);
- obstruction of justice, the FTC continuing (Golden, Aggesen, White)
- obstruction of Justice, the Federal Grand Jury investigation (Golden, Aggesen, White);
- obstruction of justice, tampering with proof – FTC listening to (Golden, Aggesen, White)
- obstruction of justice, tampering with proof – Federal Grand Jury investigation (Golden, Aggesen, White)
The indictment additional seeks prison forfeiture and was filed on March third.
A DOJ press-release accompanying the indictment states “if convicted, the defendants resist 20 years in jail”.
At time of publication the case has but to seem on Pacer. I’ll verify tomorrow and report any updates.
Replace ninth March 2022 – The prison case is now on Pacer. I’ve revealed arrest particulars for the defendants in a separate article.
Replace twelfth Could 2022 – A standing convention has been scheduled for October third, 2022.