Charles Ponzi

The CH4 website as it appeared in 2019, via the Wayback Machine.Screenshot: GizmodoStop me if you’ve heard this one before: A guy embezzled nearly $9 million by convincing investors he was turning cow poop into green energy—and then not building any of the machines at all.On Monday, 66-year-old Raymond Brewer of Porterville, California pled guilty to charges that he’d defrauded investors. Court records show that Brewer stole$8,750,000 from investors between 2014 and 2019 with promises to build anaerobic digesters, or…

A court-appointed investigator said that Celsius’ ex-CEO Alex Mashinsky had sold over $68 million worth of the network’s native CEL token since 2018, all while the network was using customer funds to prop up CEL’s price.Photo: Kevin McGovern (Shutterstock)Before it eventually imploded, the crypto lender Celsius Network promised users it would not be any regular bank—no, it would be bigger than a bank—and users could “unbank” themselves by funneling some of their funds to Celsius. Users would gain interest while Celsius…

A bankruptcy judge has dashed the dreams of investors hoping to retrieve their crypto funds from Celsius. It turns out, assets placed in the now-defunct crypto exchange’s high interest “Earn Accounts” belong to Celsius, not the account holders, according to a Wednesday ruling from Judge Martin Glenn.The decision came down to an “unambiguous provision” in one section of Celsius’ terms of use, wrote the judge. “All right and title to such Eligible Digital Assets, including ownership rights,” is held by Celsius, said version…

Blockchain skeptics and critics often deride cryptocurrency as a whole as one big pyramid scheme. And though that point might have some room for debate, the Securities and Exchange Commission is officially adding at least one more crypto venture to the ever-growing list of “definitely a scam” operations.The SEC announced charges against four people in connection with a fraudulent crypto-themed Ponzi scheme called “Trade Coin Club,” on Friday. Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan…

Photo: T. Schneider (Shutterstock)The after shakes of the recent crypto earthquake have brought down the roofs of several crypto lenders and exchanges, and some of those who once happily played in the crypto sandbox with the big players are now racing to sue before all the money is shaken out of their pockets.KeyFi Inc., which once operated as an asset manager for the crypto exchange Celsius, turned around and sued their former partner in New York State supreme court Thursday, arguing that the broker had been operating a…