An enforcement action announced Wednesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges that four men are behind an international pyramid scheme involving a fake crypto asset trading and mining company that targeted Spanish-speaking investors. The Southern District of New York complaint accuses defendants of violating the anti-fraud and registration provisions of the federal securities laws.
According to the suit, between July 2017 and November 2020, the defendants, three of whom reside in the United States, raised funds from Spanish-speaking communities in America and abroad by selling unregistered assets styled as membership interests in Forcount. The defendants knowingly or recklessly defrauded investors of over $8.4 million through promises of “guaranteed, astronomical daily returns,” the SEC says.
Among the claims they made, the defendants said that a membership in Forcount would give investors interests in returns generated from various crypto assets through its fake crypto asset trading and mining operations. Specifically, the defendants claimed that investors would share proceeds from Forcount’s crypto asset trading “calibrated robots” and a crypto asset “intelligent mining system” and Forcount’s referral program. The latter gave investors the right to earn compensation for recruiting new investors into the scheme.
Ultimately, the scheme collapsed, allegedly accelerated by the defendants misappropriating investor funds to buy themselves homes, cars, and luxury goods. One of the defendants is Brazilian national Francisley Valdevino Da Silva, a self-proclaimed “boss of the pyramid scammers.” He and co-defendant Juan Antonio Tacuri Fajardo are also facing criminal charges.
The civil complaint seeks injunctive relief preventing the defendants from participating in multi-level marketing or crypto asset offerings, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains with interest, civil penalties, and officer-and-director bars.
