Nevada man faces 280 years after alleged $24 million crypto Ponzi scheme

[Chibit01]

When ever I come across news like this, I always wonder how some people get convinced by others to give out their own money just because they are being offered a high annual return. With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

Prosecutors in Nevada say Las Vegas resident Brent Kovar operated a supposed crypto business as a $24 million Ponzi scheme.
a $24 million Ponzi scheme.

Kovar persuaded roughly 400 people to invest in a company he claimed was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the business "purportedly used artificial intelligence software on a supercomputer to mine cryptocurrency and verify other cryptocurrency transactions."

Prosecutors said Kovar promised fixed annual returns of 15% to 30%, along with a 100% money-back guarantee.

Authorities alleged those payouts came from newer investors rather than legitimate profits.

source
He was sentenced 280 years in prison which is almost equal to death setence if we are to add his current age.

[adultcrypto]

Assuming this type of punishment have been used for some of the founders of the numerous shitcoins we have, that would have brought sanity to cryptocurrency. Those founders have gone rogue, moving from one project to another just to scam people after making empty promises. I have lost money to them before so I know how painful it is losing money to scam. I think this will serve as a deterrent to others who might be contemplating launching their scam of a project. 

[Ojima-ojo]

Ponzi schemes keep thriving because people fail to address their gullibility and greed. Still, scammers' most effective tool is exploiting psychological factors, and they know the gap in social finance exists, so they create schemes around developments, like cryptocurrency and AI to attract greedy attention.


We hard those crypto mining scheme all over in the last few years back in my region, but 90% of their operators were arrested and are serving jail time presently. This Nevada Man case is going to end with a similar fate. In my country, the legislators are working on a bill that makes scams like Ponzi and romance scams capital offences to curtail the growing numbers of such offences

[Orpichukwu]

Assuming this type of punishment have been used for some of the founders of the numerous shitcoins we have, that would have brought sanity to cryptocurrency. Those founders have gone rogue, moving from one project to another just to scam people after making empty promises. I have lost money to them before so I know how painful it is losing money to scam. I think this will serve as a deterrent to others who might be contemplating launching their scam of a project. 

You think they could have reduced? Aside from Trump and his family who launched their own shitcoin and their power in office helped build trust around the token which made investors invest in that trend and their money gets dumped there.

Many of these shitcoins' developers are known, and their projects have been confirmed to be pumped and dump also faces some criminals charges they are not allowed to go free as long as there are evidence to link the project to the identity of someone, but the major problem is that most of the shitcoins out their don't have any figure or face behind them that could be held accountable which is where the scammers are always getting away with their scheme.

[coupable]

Prosecutors in Nevada say Las Vegas resident Brent Kovar operated a supposed crypto business as a $24 million Ponzi scheme.
a $24 million Ponzi scheme.

Kovar persuaded roughly 400 people to invest in a company he claimed was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the business "purportedly used artificial intelligence software on a supercomputer to mine cryptocurrency and verify other cryptocurrency transactions."

Prosecutors said Kovar promised fixed annual returns of 15% to 30%, along with a 100% money-back guarantee.

Authorities alleged those payouts came from newer investors rather than legitimate profits.

Mining in the cloud and Ponzi schemes are definitely frauds. But what is the difference between those types and memecoins? How do memecoins differ from those scams?
The scammer in this case reminds me about the president in the USA who has exploited his position to market his own token called Trumpcoin and the token of his spoiled wife, Melaniacoin.

[jossiel]

With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

It is common to us who has common knowledge about these ponzi schemes.

But for those people who don't know it yet, those are the targets of these scammers. Without personal knowledge about how their trick exists, they're the desired victims.

As long as there are greedy people who think money grows easily as promised by these ponzis, there will be victims falling for it.

[shinratensei_]

Prosecutors in Nevada say Las Vegas resident Brent Kovar operated a supposed crypto business as a $24 million Ponzi scheme.
a $24 million Ponzi scheme.

Kovar persuaded roughly 400 people to invest in a company he claimed was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the business "purportedly used artificial intelligence software on a supercomputer to mine cryptocurrency and verify other cryptocurrency transactions."

Prosecutors said Kovar promised fixed annual returns of 15% to 30%, along with a 100% money-back guarantee.

Authorities alleged those payouts came from newer investors rather than legitimate profits.

Mining in the cloud and Ponzi schemes are definitely frauds. But what is the difference between those types and memecoins? How do memecoins differ from those scams?
The scammer in this case reminds me about the president in the USA who has exploited his position to market his own token called Trumpcoin and the token of his spoiled wife, Melaniacoin.

What I know is people justified meme coin not being considered as scam because it's a joke token and categorising it as collectible, they keep saying that nobody forces us or anyone to buy the joke token, but it became scam when the liquidity is suddenly pulled and the deployers is in cahoot with a group of people to bundle the meme coin and rug later. Worse thing is despite thousands of the rugs, nobody get punished.

Though I personally don't buy this kind of justification, especially when the deployer owns more than 60% of meme coins total supply. All of them are the same scam.

[hd49728]

When ever I come across news like this, I always wonder how some people get convinced by others to give out their own money just because they are being offered a high annual return. With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

Ponzi scams always work and bring money to scammers because people don't change human instinct even there are enough resources to learn about scams including Ponzi scams.

Investment Scams & Ponzi Schemes 🎩
Ponzi Scheme 101.
Cloudmining 101 (ponzi risk assessment).
MLM – a dangerous marketing strategy. The example in that topic is Bitconnect but you can search for another famous Ponzi scam: Onecoin.

[yhiaali3]

I liked this punishment of "280 years".😭 It is a just punishment for such fraudsters who exploit people's dreams, steal their savings, shatter their dreams, and think that they will get away with their actions. I hope this will be a good, harsh lesson for all of them.

Some people are still deceived by large return figures such as 15-30%, thinking that they will get large returns while keeping their capital without any effort. How delusional and naive they are, because these figures alone are enough to expose this type of deception, yet they still fall into the trap.

[Fiatless]

When ever I come across news like this, I always wonder how some people get convinced by others to give out their own money just because they are being offered a high annual return. With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

When people are ignorant, they are easily deceived by technological development. I have seen some advert on social media that promises significant returns because the platform trades using artificial intelligence. Unsuspecting victims are easily convinced that using AI to trade guarantees returns. Ignorance and greed are the cardinal causes of becoming victims of scams.

He was sentenced 280 years in prison which is almost equal to death setence if we are to add his current age.

He has not been sentenced yet, but he faces up to 280 years. He would be sentenced on November 30, 2026. He was found guilty of 11 counts and might not serve the full number of years if the jail term is concurrent.

[Sim_card]

You should avoid anything that is too good to be true because what will make you fall victim to this kind of scam. Ponzi scheme are after the greed and gullible people who want to become rich overnight. If only this will make the rest ponzi schemers  learn a big lesson from their job because 240 years imprisonment is what nobody wants.

[Yablee0]

When ever I come across news like this, I always wonder how some people get convinced by others to give out their own money just because they are being offered a high annual return. With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

I don't know if I will say is greed or ignorance that has caused this in this current generation?  Because I still can't help but wonder what the actual problem is. However, is Ponzi schemes scam is no longer a new thing since it has been a old format of scamming for sometimes now,  I wouldn't know why people are still falling victim for such cheap scam.  And again, I think people really needs to engage in more tangible and reliable activities that will earn them sure living not to always put hope on how to make fast money, I believe this is mostly the problem.

He was sentenced 280 years in prison which is almost equal to death setence if we are to add his current age.

You can barely see someone that live up to that amount of age they just mentioned. I think you're right when you said it is equivalent to death penalty and that serves him right, maybe this will be a big lesson for those that are already in that same line of dirty business.

[Somegory]

If you don't see your problem and also address it you will never see yourself as someone who is doing something wrong, this is why scam tricks like this still works on people unfortunately.

They have good heart and they believe that everyone who approaches them also have good heart like they do, this is why they even give a listening ear to strangers that they have never meet before.

Scammers are 10 times more smarter today, because they can call you on video using deep AI and you will see fake white man talking, it looks almost real if you allow or if you want to believe it.

I hope that such wicked people will keep facing the brutal side of law, they are not been caught enough.

[Mpamaegbu]

When ever I come across news like this, I always wonder how some people get convinced by others to give out their own money just because they are being offered a high annual return. With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

I won't say it's ignorance. I believe it's chiefly desperation that makes people fall for such. I said desperation because I've watched that pattern for a very long time and observed that most times those who fall for such aren't ignorant folks. They aren't people who are even in abject poverty either. They're simply people who are desperate to scale their finances or whatever position they're.

Recently, I've been monitoring a trading channel where the owner shows screenshots of his wins. There's room for monthly subscription and all that for those who want signals there too. Sometimes, the owner shows pictures of before and then later of how price went. I'm not convinced that they're actually taking those trades on a live account. It's simple. Owner could open two accounts on demo and take opposite trades on the same pair. Then display the one trade that wins to his unsuspecting followers.

He was sentenced 280 years in prison which is almost equal to death setence if we are to add his current age.

That's ludicrous sentencing for me. Who lives 280 years now when we aren't talking nof biblical characters?

[Oluwa-btc]

Ponzi scams always work and bring money to scammers because people don't change human instinct even there are enough resources to learn about scams including Ponzi scams.

Investment Scams & Ponzi Schemes 🎩
Ponzi Scheme 101.
Cloudmining 101 (ponzi risk assessment).
MLM – a dangerous marketing strategy. The example in that topic is Bitconnect but you can search for another famous Ponzi scam: Onecoin.

NovaTech
Hyperverse NFT Ponzi launch
Crowd1
OmegaPro
Metafi Yielders.

These are also Ponzi Schemes known to have wreck people's finances who invested in them. We barely see news of these ponzi ceo's being punished, it is refreshing reading such above. Investors should carry out due diligence before jumping and hopping into whatever project they see.

[Italian Panic]

When ever I come across news like this, I always wonder how some people get convinced by others to give out their own money just because they are being offered a high annual return. With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

Prosecutors in Nevada say Las Vegas resident Brent Kovar operated a supposed crypto business as a $24 million Ponzi scheme.
a $24 million Ponzi scheme.

Kovar persuaded roughly 400 people to invest in a company he claimed was worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the business "purportedly used artificial intelligence software on a supercomputer to mine cryptocurrency and verify other cryptocurrency transactions."

Prosecutors said Kovar promised fixed annual returns of 15% to 30%, along with a 100% money-back guarantee.

Authorities alleged those payouts came from newer investors rather than legitimate profits.

source
He was sentenced 280 years in prison which is almost equal to death setence if we are to add his current age.

In this case, the problem isn’t cryptocurrencies themselves, but the method used and the people who believe in it. Normies buy cryptocurrencies whilst completely ignoring their potential and deeper meaning. This scoundrel has only been thinking about getting rich and will meet his fate; the fact that he used crypto rather than shares is simply down to the current trend. If seashells were the thing tomorrow, they’d start using those too.

[MArsland]

With how common ponzi schemes have been, how do people still fall victim to this type of Ponzi scam?

It is common to us who has common knowledge about these ponzi schemes.

But for those people who don't know it yet, those are the targets of these scammers. Without personal knowledge about how their trick exists, they're the desired victims.

As long as there are greedy people who think money grows easily as promised by these ponzis, there will be victims falling for it.

I agree that Ponzi is no longer a new phenomenon, although there has been a lot of education about the risks, but still the problem is the lure pattern offered. Who is not happy with a 100% return on profits? a pattern that manages to play on the psychology and greed of its victims, even crypto users do not escape the ponzi trap because they are used to volatile price movements so it will be very easy to get caught.

[Sunshine1525]

NovaTech
Hyperverse NFT Ponzi launch
Crowd1
OmegaPro
Metafi Yielders.

These are also Ponzi Schemes known to have wreck people's finances who invested in them. We barely see news of these ponzi ceo's being punished, it is refreshing reading such above. Investors should carry out due diligence before jumping and hopping into whatever project they see.

I think you're right cause the ones that succeeded in scamming people in my locality where never punished, maybe it was done behind the seen but if authorities made if public, then it would help reduce the rate of ponzi schemes, but i blame the victims more cause they don't learn.

There are people that's become addicted to ponzi schemes, i know a dude that lost money to a particular ponzi scheme but still shared his referral link to people to join a new one. When i reminded him of his previous lose to ponzi he said he's among the early birds of the new one and would cash out before they crash, you could imagine the mentality of many victims out there.

[Felicity_Tide]

He was sentenced 280 years in prison which is almost equal to death setence if we are to add his current age.

Unfortunately, the sentence is unlikely to change what has already happened. $24 million is probably gone, and even if the security agencies are able to recover some of it, I doubt that all the victims will receive their full share of what they invested. Paying new investors with old Investors money... Typical Ponzi scheme tactics.

From what I've been thinking lately about this people who fall victim to Ponzi schemes, they seem to be easily attracted to scams that are properly sugarcoated with big words and things that they themselves can barely understand. In this case here, it was said that they used "AI software on supercomputers to mine crypto"... And I believe that could have been a strong attractive factor for the victims. I might be wrong though, but I think the very moment a scammer sounds too intelligent and convincing to their victims, the scam is likely to happen.

[NotATether]

That is about 2920 years too short.

He should have been sentenced to 3000 cycles of somatic reconditioning and banishment to the phantom zone.