The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged two people with reportedly running a fraudulent $25 million artificial intelligence (AI) crypto-trading scheme.
As of the December 12 announcement, David Gilbert Saffron from Australia and Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr. from Los Angeles allegedly operated trading programs that falsely claimed to use an AI trading bot to generate high profits from cryptocurrency investments.
Instead of investing the users’ funds as promised, the two individuals are accused of using the money for personal luxuries such as private jet flights, luxury hotels, renting mansions, hiring a personal chef, and private security services.
Furthermore, the defendants are alleged to have hidden the victims’ cryptocurrency investments through complex transactions and the use of tools like cryptocurrency mixers to avoid detection.
The fraudulent scheme operated under different names, including Circle Society, Bitcoin Wealth Management, Omicron Trust, Mind Capital, Federal Crypto Reserve, and Cloud9Capital.
Since the sanctions imposed on the cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash last year, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been actively working to ensure that blockchain entities comply with regulations.
Various units within the DOJ’s criminal division will closely monitor Binance’s operations. This includes teams specializing in money laundering and asset recovery, national security, counterintelligence, export control, and the office of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington.
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