According to Cointelegraph, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that a federal court has ordered a fine and compensation of over $130 million against the Brazilian founder of the illegal cryptocurrency investment platform EmpiresX.
On February 4th, Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the Southern District Court of Florida imposed permanent injunctions, economic penalties, and other legal actions on EmpiresX founders Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves, and their partner Joshua Nicholas. The case was initially filed on June 30, 2022, and due to the defendant's failure to respond to the charges by the deadline, a default judgment was ultimately made.
According to court documents, Empires Consulting operated a fraudulent investment program called EmpiresX, which falsely promised high returns to investors. Pires and Goncalves are accused of obtaining at least $40 million from victims through false cryptocurrency advertisements. The founder did not invest these funds as promised, but instead abused them to purchase Bitcoin and Ethereum, while restricting withdrawals and displaying false profits from non-existent investments. The founder of EmpireX used these funds for personal expenses, including purchasing luxury goods and traveling. Despite this, investigators still recovered approximately $22.8 million in digital currency from them.
