In short
- Federal Public Prosecutors have accused two Omegapro managers of running a crypto -wang of $ 650 million masked as a Forex investment platform.
- The couple are said to have used lush events and false promises of 300% return to lure investors worldwide and then froze the recordings at the end of 2022.
- The DOJ case follows a broader performance, including last month’s conviction of Gotbit’s founder for blowing up token volumes through washing trade.
Federal Public Prosecutors in the US have sued two men for the orchestrating of one of the largest crypto investment pain in recent history.
Michael Shannon Sims, 48, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57, were sued in the Puerto Rico district for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to carry out money laundering, according to the statement by the US Department of Justice that was released on Tuesday.
The couple is accused of cheating thousands of victims worldwide of more than $ 650 million via Omegapro, who described public prosecutors as a “global fraud schedule” disguised as a legitimate forex and crypto -trading platform.
According to public prosecutors, Sims and Reynoso set up the Omegapro marketing schedule on Multi-Level in January 2019, in which investors are instructed to buy “investment packages” using virtual currency with promises that elite traders would generate mass profit by Forex-trading.
Public prosecutors say that the couple, together with others, lured thousands of victims with promises of triple figures, only to overhang funds in crypto-portfolios they checked.
They then spread to insiders and high -ranking promoters to cover up the origin of the funds, whereby both defendants are said to have benefited millions of the scheme.
“As claimed, the defendants have hunted vulnerable people in the US and abroad, so that they are cheating of more than $ 650 million by making false promises of substantial returns and that their money was safe,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Doj’s Criminal Division.
Sims served as the founder and strategic consultant of Omegapro, while Reynoso led operations in Latin -America and parts of the United States, including Puerto Rico.
Prosecutors claim that Sims and Reynoso have used extravagant events, such as projecting the Omegapro logo on the Burj Khalifa, and social media displays of luxury to seduce victims.
“Too good to be true”
Karan Pujara, founder of the SCAM defense platform Scambuzzer, said Decrypt Those crypto mlm scoopers operate powerful psychological triggers.
“Even if there is something too good to be true, many fall for it,” Pujara said, and noted that “this scams have been and can continue for many years on the basis of false hope and high returns.” He added: “The only thing that changes is the face of the scammer, who is greedy enough to steal, and the victim, who is greedy enough to yolo their life bastings.”
Pujara noted that there is “a very thin line between right and wrong” when it comes to high -profile influencers participating in such schemes.
Unravel OmegaPros
The alleged Omegapro scheme started unraveling in November 2022 when the company picked up the recordings and claimed technical issues.
Affiliates began to report that they were locked from their accounts around November 7, with withdrawal problems that escalated on November 20, according to a report from RearAn MLM assessment site.
Despite the guarantees of Reynoso and others in January 2023 that investments were safe and were transferred to a new platform called Broker Group, victims could not have access to their funds from both platforms, according to the report.
The platform received regulatory fraud warnings from several areas of law, including France, Belgium, Spain and Peru, before the collapse in July 2023.
The indictment of the duo follows the arrest of co-founder Andreas Szakacs in Istanbul last year after a Dutch whistleblower who represented 3,000 cheated investors who represent Turkish authorities, according to a local media report.
The Turkish authorities believe that the funds of the platform have been linked to the infamous Onecoin -Crypto fraud that $ 4 billion investors scammed in 2017.
“Based on earlier hacking and scam cases, the chances of recovering assets are very rare,” said Pujara, adding that scammers avoid traditional exchanges and use fake KYC details from other countries.
If convicted, Sims and Reynoso are each for a maximum fine of 20 years in prison on every count.
Last month, Crypto Market Maker Gotbit and the founder were convicted of the use of washing trade to blow up token volumes.
Founder Aleksei Andriunin received a reduced punishment after being guilty, forfeited $ 23 million in crypto.
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