The head of the Argyle Coin cryptocurrency pyramid, which offered investments in diamonds, has been charged with fraud.
The US Federal Attorney’s Office of South Florida accused Jose Angel Aman of electronic fraud while running a cryptocurrency scheme offering diamond investments.
According to the investigation, from May 2014 to May 2019, Aman and his partners urged people in the United States and Canada to invest in contracts for the purchase of diamonds. They promised investors that they would use the money to buy rough colored diamonds, which Aman would cut and resell at a profit.
They reassured investors that the money was safe because it was backed by Aman’s diamond reserves, allegedly valued at $ 25 million. Aman and his partners presented the investment as a high-yield, risk-free deal. However, according to the prosecutor’s office, these statements were false and unsupported.
According to the investigation, Aman rarely used investors’ money to buy diamonds. He never cut or resell diamonds. Also, Aman did not have $ 25 million in diamond reserves. To cover up the fraud, Aman allegedly paid interest to investors using money from new participants in the scheme.
As the scheme was on the verge of collapse, prosecutors say Aman founded a new business, Argyle Coin LLC, which was allegedly involved in the development of a diamond-backed cryptocurrency. Aman attracted new investors to Argyle, promising high risk-free returns. Aman used only part of the money he received from Argyle investors to develop the coin, and used most of it to pay interest to investors in another scheme.
In the course of the pyramid, Aman and his partners collected more than $ 25 million from hundreds of investors. Aman used the money to pay interest to investors, pay operating expenses, pay commissions to partners, and maintain his luxurious lifestyle.
Recall that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took action against Aman’s fraudulent cryptocurrency project last spring.
