After receiving penitentiary sentences of up to 10 years this year, at least four of IcomTech’s operators are currently incarcerated.
Five individuals who were involved in IcomTech’s “Ponzi” scheme have been ordered by a Californian court to pay a total of over $5 million for the misappropriation of stolen funds through a fictitious Bitcoin trading scheme.
Marco A. Ruiz Ochoa was issued a consent order, while David Carmona, Juan Arellano Parra, Moses Valdez, and David Brend were found liable for all violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulations alleged in the complaint by the default judgment order, the CFTC announced in a statement on December 11.
The CFTC’s complaint, which was filed on May 24, 2023, resulted in a default judgment on October 21.
The five individuals fraudulently solicited more than $1 million from 190 individuals in the United States and other countries, falsely convincing them that they would invest their funds in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through their non-existent mining and trading platform.
Rather, they misappropriated a substantial amount of victim funds, which was estimated to be around $8.4 million in December 2022.
In addition to Ochoa’s $1 million civil monetary penalty, Carmona, Arellano Parra, Valdez, and Brend will each pay an estimated $1 million in restitution to the victims, for a total of over $5 million.
All five individuals have been irrevocably prohibited from trading in any CFTC-regulated markets and from registering with the CFTC.
In October, Carmona, the founder and “mastermind” of IcomTech’s Ponzi scheme, was issued a ten-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Brend received a 10-year sentence on Dec. 2, while Rodriguez was sentenced to eight years on Oct. 31 for his involvement.
In January, Ochoa was also sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
IcomTech, which operated from mid-2018 to the end of 2019, advertised a 100% return on investment every six weeks.
Its operators frequently traveled throughout the United States and abroad, hosting “lavish expos” to entice victims into the Ponzi scheme.
They frequently appeared at these events in high-end vehicles, adorned in opulent attire, and boasted about their profits in an attempt to persuade potential investors that they could achieve comparable financial success.
