Florida man charged with scamming investors out of $6.8M in crypto trading schem

[TrevorS]

A Florida businessman has been charged with scamming investors through a $6.8 million digital asset trading scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Tuesday.

According to the court complaint filed in federal court in Miami, Thomas J. Gity allegedly received funding from at least 18 investors by pretending to be a "high-profitable asset trader who never lost money during a trading day." Gity was accused of providing fake account statements to investors to trick them into thinking he was managing as much as $100 million in assets.

Per the complaint, Gity told investors he would use their funding to trade digital assets, but only transferred $970,000 of the $6.8 million he received into trading accounts. Gity allegedly transferred over $1.8 million of the funds to his son and for personal expenses and gambling.

Gity is facing charges for violating multiple securities laws, including the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC is seeking a civil penalty and is moving to prevent Gity from taking part in securities offerings.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/79313/florida-sec-crypto-trading-lawsuit

[Mahanton]

Per the complaint, Gity told investors he would use their funding to trade digital assets, but only transferred $970,000 of the $6.8 million he received into trading accounts. Gity allegedly transferred over $1.8 million of the funds to his son and for personal expenses and gambling.

People never ever learn and how the hell they do really end up on trusting up someones for them to handle out their funds just for them to expect some returns of their investment.
I cant believe that it did really reach out $6.8M and this signifies that there are lots of fools who do still believe on quick profits or passive income on letting others do handle out their
money to grow via trading.This would be a lesson learn for them because things doesnt work as they do anticipate.For the suspect or fraudster then its just right for him to face
up consequence and hopefully this one shouldnt have bail so that we wont able to get out. 

[wxa7115]

A Florida businessman has been charged with scamming investors through a $6.8 million digital asset trading scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced on Tuesday.

According to the court complaint filed in federal court in Miami, Thomas J. Gity allegedly received funding from at least 18 investors by pretending to be a "high-profitable asset trader who never lost money during a trading day." Gity was accused of providing fake account statements to investors to trick them into thinking he was managing as much as $100 million in assets.

Per the complaint, Gity told investors he would use their funding to trade digital assets, but only transferred $970,000 of the $6.8 million he received into trading accounts. Gity allegedly transferred over $1.8 million of the funds to his son and for personal expenses and gambling.

Gity is facing charges for violating multiple securities laws, including the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The SEC is seeking a civil penalty and is moving to prevent Gity from taking part in securities offerings.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/79313/florida-sec-crypto-trading-lawsuit

This once again proves that having money does not necessarily demonstrates that you are smart or that you know anything about the markets, the moment any investor listens any claim about never losing money or never having a losing day you must run away as fast as you can and never invest with people like that, there are basically two ways to make money in the markets one way is to have a low accuracy system that is trying to get big profits on each trade, this is difficult psychologically for most people as most cannot accept to lose many times in a row.

The other way is to have a system with a high accuracy that gives you small profits on each trade, but even a system like this does not guarantee profits each day and there could be even weekly or monthly losses with such system, so anyone making the guarantee of never losing money in the markets has a 100% chance of being a scammer.

[stomachgrowls]

You had commited illegal thing then its just natural that you would be faced up some charges or cases.

For the suspect or fraudster then its just right for him to face
up consequence and hopefully this one shouldnt have bail so that we wont able to get out.  

Basing of one of his case alone or charges about Securities Exchange Act of 1934 then this one alone wont really be that too light.

As mentioned:

Under Section 32(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, individuals face up to 20 years in prison for criminal securities fraud and/or a fine of up to $5 million for each "willful" violation of the act and the regulations under it. Only fines, not imprisonment, apply if the defendant can demonstrate "no knowledge" of the rule or regulation that is violated.

source: Source

Of all the money he had scammed, then it would really just enough for him to pay up the fine.

[Hippocrypto]

Per the complaint, Gity told investors he would use their funding to trade digital assets, but only transferred $970,000 of the $6.8 million he received into trading accounts. Gity allegedly transferred over $1.8 million of the funds to his son and for personal expenses and gambling.

People never ever learn and how the hell they do really end up on trusting up someones for them to handle out their funds just for them to expect some returns of their investment.
I cant believe that it did really reach out $6.8M and this signifies that there are lots of fools who do still believe on quick profits or passive income on letting others do handle out their
money to grow via trading.This would be a lesson learn for them because things doesnt work as they do anticipate.For the suspect or fraudster then its just right for him to face
up consequence and hopefully this one shouldnt have bail so that we wont able to get out. 

There's no scammer if every people is aware of their deceiving tactics, most common problems on every prey they had was they easily trust someone. Let's motivate ourselves from now on that never put confidence at any stranger who offers any kind of investment schemes, regardless if it's crypto or fiat money business. Studying trading and other sustainable business will surely boom in the future if you're not getting tired of working hard, and that's the best strategy to beat possible fraudulent people to brainwash you for their evil acts.

[wiss19]

People are always looking for means to make money and at the end their pursuit of profit leads them into putting their money in the wrongs , and of course that when they don’t know what they are getting themselves.

It’s always good to try understand the kind of thing you’re getting yourself into, do research and learn about scams and all that, you don’t just be trusting anyone you see knowing very well the world we are in that almost everything can be forged to deceive people. This is why it’s good to learn things and do it for yourself if you have time to do that, because other people can’t be fully trusted. There are still reliable people out there, but they are usually hard to find since there are so many of the bad guys.

[beerlover]

"Florida man" is such an epic meme, it is such a weird thing that all the crazy stories comes from there. Obviously this is not one of them, this is a regular one that is weird at all but the template "florida man" makes me chuckle no matter what the story is.

Honestly this looks and sounds like something that could have been done a bit differently and work in fiat as well, there is nothing crypto about this one, obviously we all fear that this is crypto but in the end 7 million is not really that big of a deal and nothing will change in the crypto world just because someone did it with crypto so do not fear or be worried. However, it is also important to make governments realize that stealing crypto is still stealing and there should be bigger laws preventing it.

[ChrisPop]

Lessons learned the hard-way make the biggest impact. Still, I am amazed on the lack of education of the man who scammed the investors. I mean stealing all those funds has stained his family's name for decades to come. Not even talking about their consciousness if they have one. And for what? - Personal expenses and gambling?! - People are short-term sighted these days. Life is long and money can be made in tons. But other things like reputation and time are priceless.

[pixie85]

This won't end well for him. What was he even thinking?

Now he's going to have to take the plea and this usually means a year or 2 behind bars and return of all stolen money.

Was it really worth it? If he tried to sell everything and run with the money I'd maybe understand his way of thinking.

[stompix]

Lessons learned the hard-way make the biggest impact. Still, I am amazed on the lack of education of the man who scammed the investors. I mean stealing all those funds has stained his family's name for decades to come.

Too late for that, the stains were already all over the place

He has two Rhode Island felony convictions: in 1994, for racketeering, operating an organized crime gambling business, and conspiracy, for which he served time in prison, and in
2000, for embezzlement, for which he received 10 years’ probation.

Also:

Gity created the portfolio statements by using a mobile phone application called Coin Stats. Specifically, Gity manually entered purported balance and profit information from the
digital asset trading accounts into the Coin Stats application and then took screenshots (“Screenshots”) on his mobile phone of the portfolio statements, which displayed the information
he entered. He sent the Screenshots directly to investors via text message or, in some cases, asked Investor to do so on his behalf.

So they gave this guy millions and they were happy with screenshots sent on mobile, I wonder how these people still had that much money if they were so easy to fool.
Check the last page of the complaint, that's the proof he sent to investors.
Sometimes I really can't believe how easy some people are tricked to hand out such large amounts and how long it takes them to understand something is not going the right way, nor how little attention they pay to details or the amount of research they do before that. And for every person that learns a lesson, there are a hundred waiting in line to get scammed.

[batang_bitcoin]

This won't end well for him. What was he even thinking?

Maybe greed? He has held a huge amount of money and wants to hold more and comes up with the idea of scamming others. This scamming scheme is common whenever I watch news locally about crypto scams in my country. I feel bad for the investors, they've trusted the guy and ended being scammed. The investors should have already backed up when someone introduces himself as a trader and never experienced any lose his trading career.

[maydna]

This won't end well for him. What was he even thinking?

Maybe greed? He has held a huge amount of money and wants to hold more and comes up with the idea of scamming others. This scamming scheme is common whenever I watch news locally about crypto scams in my country. I feel bad for the investors, they've trusted the guy and ended being scammed. The investors should have already backed up when someone introduces himself as a trader and never experienced any lose his trading career.

Greed will be his reason to scam others, and even he already held huge amounts. Humans will never satisfy with what we have, and we always want more than what we have. I guess the scamming scheme will be like that, but the scammers will use the other method that can be used to get more targets.

If he can stop for a while and leave everything to enjoy his money, he will not get caught. But in that story, I see that he send the money to his son, expenses, and gambling. It seems he has another problem in gambling, or perhaps, he will use gambling to launder the money. People really need to be aware of offers like that, and always search for more information before investing.

[Lorence.xD]

This the least worst thing that a Florida man has been associated from. He will not be going down so easily because his case involved a lot of dough. This is a classic case of greed gone out of control, he was not content doing honest work. This is what happens when people always put money in the first place and make it a mantra that money is everything. Good thing that his scheme was immediately cracked down because if this could've dragged for awhile, there will be more investors that will get their money swiped under their nose on the pretense of investing it.

[supine]

I couldn't believe there are people who believes in such claims, A person who never lose in his trading days?
How could an investor believe in such lie if they are true investor they would know that there is no such thing in trading all traders would experience a lost in their trading time.
It is same as claiming that he never did lose in gambling we know that both of it is impossible.
People should learn to use their common sense in this type of times in order to avoid being scammed.

[imstillthebest]

Per the complaint, Gity told investors he would use their funding to trade digital assets, but only transferred $970,000 of the $6.8 million he received into trading accounts. Gity allegedly transferred over $1.8 million of the funds to his son and for personal expenses and gambling.

atleast he still tried to trade with a close to a million amount but other scammers are not going to able to do this .  other interesting fact to this guy is that some parts of the funds he sended it to his son , never heard of other gamblers do this and other scammers only care about them selves . they dont want thier family know what they are doing . the guy on this story can be a good guy but he got only tempted with the huge amount . his personal hobby of gambling also influence him to become a bad guy

[Yaunfitda]

I couldn't believe there are people who believes in such claims, A person who never lose in his trading days?
How could an investor believe in such lie if they are true investor they would know that there is no such thing in trading all traders would experience a lost in their trading time.
It is same as claiming that he never did lose in gambling we know that both of it is impossible.
People should learn to use their common sense in this type of times in order to avoid being scammed.

It's because there are still people around, clueless on trading, but this guy is probably a sweet talker, so obviously, he can attract investors and blindly trust on him that he can make more money. But it's too late as this is a cyber criminal, taking advantage of such people. $100 million of money in his pocket, he thinks he can live the life he dreams of, unfortunately, there are no shortcuts in life, and now he had to pay for it. I'm not really sure how his son or his family will react though, probably they really knows where he got all the money with. And knows that they are living in a borrowed time.

[whyrqa]

At least all crypto traders were once newbies and had no experience. In addition, in the market, someone always wins, and someone loses, and no matter how long a particular trader is engaged in this activity. The most important thing is understanding for everyone, The more we comprehend knowledge in cryptocurrency trading and gain experience, the higher the chance to achieve the desired result.

[slaman29]

So they gave this guy millions and they were happy with screenshots sent on mobile, I wonder how these people still had that much money if they were so easy to fool.
Check the last page of the complaint, that's the proof he sent to investors.
Sometimes I really can't believe how easy some people are tricked to hand out such large amounts and how long it takes them to understand something is not going the right way, nor how little attention they pay to details or the amount of research they do before that. And for every person that learns a lesson, there are a hundred waiting in line to get scammed.

Better believe it. People who seem to have the most money, in my experience, don't seem to be very smart about it. They just started off with a lot of money already, and used it to make even more, and then so they don't have the same feeling towards it as some of us who save money and work hard just to build a nest. Here we have every day almost reports of people getting scammed by even worse efforts than that. Police issue warnings on TV, newspapers carry public service warnings. But people still as you say are lining up waiting to get scammed.

Greed. Ignorance.

[batang_bitcoin]

This won't end well for him. What was he even thinking?

Maybe greed? He has held a huge amount of money and wants to hold more and comes up with the idea of scamming others. This scamming scheme is common whenever I watch news locally about crypto scams in my country. I feel bad for the investors, they've trusted the guy and ended being scammed. The investors should have already backed up when someone introduces himself as a trader and never experienced any lose his trading career.

Greed will be his reason to scam others, and even he already held huge amounts. Humans will never satisfy with what we have, and we always want more than what we have. I guess the scamming scheme will be like that, but the scammers will use the other method that can be used to get more targets.

If he can stop for a while and leave everything to enjoy his money, he will not get caught. But in that story, I see that he send the money to his son, expenses, and gambling. It seems he has another problem in gambling, or perhaps, he will use gambling to launder the money. People really need to be aware of offers like that, and always search for more information before investing.

It's nice to see scammer like him to be caught by the authorities for scamming people. And their own greediness will let them fall to be caught by the police. Those investors also has to use this experience for them to learn and don't fall again for the same scam or any other scam soon as in crypto there's no quick profit. That misconception is still alive today and many think that crypto is all like that.

[AakZaki]

A crazy man who wants to get more money by tricking some investors by tricking him with fake asset data, even though he doesn't own the money himself. How can these 18 investors just believe, even 18 investors are able to raise $ 6.8 million.

it's important to always be vigilant and always research what we want to invest in a project or in other people.