The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stirred Friday to freeze the property of a cryptocurrency mining and structure advertising and merchandising scheme that it claimed bilked buyers of $12 million.
Unsealing its criticism con to Utah resident Daniel F. Putnam, his companies MMT Distributions and R & D Global and associates Angel A. Rodriguez of Utah and Jean Paul Ramirez Rico of Colombia, the SEC claimed the three had lied to buyers and criminal their cash in on hand.
The "Modern Money Team," (MMT) as Putnam apparently referred to as each companies, invested in crypto mining gear from a minimum of July 2019 and at long las pivoted to providing buyers "cryptocurrency trading packages" that may exploit crypto "arbitrage" alternatives at Bitfinex, in response to the criticism, which was filed inside the U.S District Court for the District of Utah.
Ramirez ran the crypto investments, Rodriguez was the liaison, and Putnam, a veteran of structure advertising and merchandising, ran MMT.
Two hundred buyers joined Putnam's mining scheme, and MMT put together raised $12 million from 2,000 buyers in complete, the SEC alleged. The SEC extra alleged that MMT ceased paying out buyers in Nov. 2019 notwithstandin continued to boost cash in on hand by way of March 9 2020.
But the criticism mentioned among the cash not by a blame sight went towards crypto mining gear or digital plus investments. Instead, Putnam spent over $100,000 of his buyers' cash in on hand on a condominium and $33,000 shopping for a spa, in response to the SEC.
Ramirez managed the Bitfinex account that Putnam instructed buyers as just recently as January 2020 held 260 bitcoin, in response to the criticism. But the SEC alleged that the account not by a blame sight held greater than 50, and that it was closed May 2019. Ramirez had been periodically making ponzi-like cash in on hand to buyers, the SEC alleged.
The SEC alleged that Putnam and Rodriguez knew "or were reckless in not knowing" that Ramirez was working a ponzi-like scheme based mostly on Whatsapp communications.
"We are either going to retire this year or attend jail," Putnam texted to Rodriguez in February 2019, in response to the SEC. "And Im [sic] still not sure any of it is real."
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