A Stuart man ployed with two men at a cryptocurrency investment platform to mislead investors and conspire to commit fraud, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
A South Florida federal grand jury indicted Joshua David Nicholas, Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves each with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in connection with a global cryptocurrency-based fraud that generated around $100 million in revenues from investors, the attorney’s office announced Thursday.
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Nicholas, 28, of Stuart, was the so-called head trader of EmpiresX, the crypto-platform founded by Pires and Goncalves, according to court documents.
The trio founded EmpiresX in early 2020, with an official office based in Miami.
Via Zoom, YouTube, Telegram and Facebook, the men marketed EmpiresX to potential investors.
The men boasted the “EX BOT” a proprietary trading “bot” that could generate guaranteed returns, according to the federal court indictment.
Nicholas performed demonstrations of the bot “in action” executing trades on the U.S. Stock Market, according to the indictment.
These demonstrations, however, were fictitious, prosecutors said. And the representation of the…
