Two plaintiffs in Miami-Dade County have filed a class action complaint against cryptocurrency platform Empires X Corp. and its founders based on an alleged Ponzi scheme. In Villanueva v. Empires X Corp., pending in Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit, the plaintiffs allege that they, as well as several other damaged investors, provided millions of dollars to Empires X Corp. based on extensive misrepresentations that Empires X Corp. was a legitimate investment opportunity for trading cryptocurrency. The plaintiffs claim, however, that Empires X Corp. was nothing but a sham and that Empires X Corp. and its founders converted the investment funds provided for their own personal use without providing investors with any of the promised profits. The plaintiffs are seeking to bring claims on their own behalf and for all persons who used the Empires X platform to place cryptocurrency investment orders based on the well-established requirements detailed in Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.220: numerosity, commonality, typicality, and adequate representation.
What makes this proposed class action different from the typical class action is that one of the defendants, co-founder Joshua David Nicholas, has agreed to help the proposed class recoup what they can from Empires X Corp. and the other co-founders, who have purportedly gone “on the run” with the stolen funds. Nicholas claims to have no funds to make restitutionary payments to the plaintiffs, but he does possess…
