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

[Tamaperdana]

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?

Snip

They must be laypeople, because people who have researched the market won't be fooled by any Ponzi scheme. Basically, people who have studied crypto, how it works, and how to profit from it will immediately be suspicious of an overstated offer. Therefore, we must be able to think rationally and realistically. Basically, if someone can guarantee profits to anyone, why not just do it for themselves? That's safer because it doesn't involve anyone. But if someone like that offers any kind of service, it's clear that their claims are lies, and indeed, lies. Logically, I think it's clear. Therefore, don't expect instant results with easy methods, because that's clearly unrealistic. It's better to work as hard as possible, and that's better than getting fake money and being scammed.

[BluebloodCXVI]

These ponzi schemers would just throw around some few tech buzzwords to some unsuspecting people and boom!! they will start bringing their hard earned money to invest without trying to make proper clarifications and confirmations then now end up getting scammed of their money.

I don’t even know what to call this anymore cos things like this have happened time and time again in the past and you’d think people would have learned from it but no, many people still fall for it; I don’t think it’s ever gonna stop 🤦, seems like the human psychology doesn’t upgrade as fast as the marketing language.

[Jubilee58]

Ponzi scheme is one of the ways Bitcoin investors looses their assets, especially the newbies. People who don't understand who don't understand how Bitcoin investing work would think investing in ponzi scheme is part of Bitcoin investment since it promises high return on their investment. Many have actually lost their Bitcoin investment to ponzi schemes, and even some of us have heard, and even become victims, and we eventually learned from our mistakes. If you are a Bitcoin investor weather old or new, avoid ponzi scheme because it has never been profitable, and is never a genue way of investing instead is a trap to defraud investors.

These scammers have done many harm to their victims, and therefore if anyone found masterminding ponzi scheme is caught, such person should face the consequences because they have made some lives miserable because of their fraudulent activities.

[Pi-network314159]

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?

Don't be surprised mate, people get scammed out of greediness and I have said it repeatedly. Another thing there is that scammers are very smart, and if you are not careful enough, you might fall into the trap. They usually bring out new strategy to confused people into falling to their trickish plan. Sometimes people out of excitement and overconfident makes them to take rash decision and they end up being deceived. These are the things that makes people fall into the hands of scammers even when they are fully awear about scammers.

[Myleschetty]

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?

How did some people fall for common Ponzi scheme?
From my understanding there are two reasons.
1 Many people worldwide are trying to find a way to leverage their fiat currency because it will eventually lose purchasing power if it is kept in banks.
They become victims of this Ponzi scheme because they don't understand the scammers model of scamming and looking for ways to leverage their money.

2 People who are blinded by greed are the second reason. They are already aware that anything that seems too good to be true is a fraud.

[9ja Amaka]

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. 

The punishment for first-degree murder and rape that I know of is life imprisonment or the death penalty, depending on the country's laws. Yet, every day we hear news of rape victims, pedophiles, and murder cases. Assuming this is the regular punishment to those found guilty of organizing rug pulls in the crypto space, it wont have stopped the upcoming scammers from continuing where the punished offenders stop from. These types of punishment will only help in reducing the rate at which people get scammed, but it won't stop it from happening.

[Mr Reporter]

The punishment for first-degree murder and rape that I know of is life imprisonment or the death penalty, depending on the country's laws. Yet, every day we hear news of rape victims, pedophiles, and murder cases. Assuming this is the regular punishment to those found guilty of organizing rug pulls in the crypto space, it wont have stopped the upcoming scammers from continuing where the punished offenders stop from. These types of punishment will only help in reducing the rate at which people get scammed, but it won't stop it from happening.

Firstly can I start by asking this question from what you just said, Do you think regulation would help here, or would regulation just kill innovation in crypto too? the turth is that punishment alone had never really stopped crimes from happening not even murder, or rape, or fraud and any crypto rug pulls would still be same, nowadays people don’t have fear all this punishment, in my locality young boys do fraud for a living almost 80% of young people are involved and for that punishment has not stopped it so I don’t think such punishment you made mention would stop rug pulls…

Now people have grow with the mindset of “I won’t get caught” and that same with people who are involved in rug pulls and Crypto is borderless which makes it feel easier to hide….

[iBaba]

These ponzi schemers would just throw around some few tech buzzwords to some unsuspecting people and boom!! they will start bringing their hard earned money to invest without trying to make proper clarifications and confirmations then now end up getting scammed of their money.

I don’t even know what to call this anymore cos things like this have happened time and time again in the past and you’d think people would have learned from it but no, many people still fall for it; I don’t think it’s ever gonna stop 🤦, seems like the human psychology doesn’t upgrade as fast as the marketing language.

People are still making financial decisions based on their emotions and that is why I think this scam thing keeps working, people don’t check facts once they hear some promises like guaranteed return or low risk and huge profit the fear of missing out and greed use to lead them to the real danger.

The simple rule is just never rush to invest because someone is trying to pressure you to do it, take your time and  calm down ask questions. You should also confirm where the money is coming from and when it is not okay with you just let it go

[Solodoski]

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.

We might all be surprised when we hear things like people still falling for pinzi scam, because we think everyone should be aware of it now, yes I agree that a lot of people should have heard of it, but people still fall for it. I think one of the major reasons why people fall for it is greed and laziness. Most people don't think about giving their money to someone else to invest for them, they don't even care how the person is going to invest it, rather they are more interested in the money they want to make in a very short time, so this scammer feed on their greed and scam them out of their money. I also mentioned laziness, some people don't want to be patient to make their own investment or even research of what they are investing in, they are only interested in the profit they are promised after making the investment,  so I think this are some of the few reasons why people still fall for ponzi scam.

[letteredhub]

Most of the Ponzi schemes patterns has already gotten exposed and so it's expected that scammers would go on to galvanized a new unimagined pattern to drain victims funds since everyone this days is after any investment that can return profit.

Ponzi itself is a scam scheme or scam pattern which is old enough so that if people are carefully searching for Ponzi, they can learn and understand about this scam very well and easy.

Like with these following resources, reading through them, it's enough to be never scammed by Ponzi.
[Investor alert] Ponzi schemes using cryptocurrencies (SEC).
Cryptocurrency investment fraud.
Investor alert on Ponzi.

It's true ponzi scheme is as old as anyone could remember it but the only difference is how the scammers are projecting them towards their victims. Every year we get new patterns of Ponzi Scheme scams that are professionally advanced in its operation. I recall a story shared in the forum about how a Ponzi scheme scammer presented his scheme as a crypto company that is selling shares with a certain percent annual yield, unknown to the victims it was funds from new individuals that were being used to be paying old members, just like in circles.

[Marykeller]

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?

As long as greed exists in us, Ponzi schemes won't disappear. Don't be surprised; in many years to come, we will still find people falling for Ponzi scams. And we will still be here, talking people out of it; in the end, their greediness won't let them stay out of it completely to stick with Bitcoin.

It's terrible situation that the majority of people we have in the space want to be rich overnight, and they're ready to invest and risk all they have for it.

[Faisal2202]

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.

He got a death sentence while these only get 20 years for scamming $245 million?

How is it fair? I am not a lawyer, that's why I am asking this. It does not seem fair to me, as the Lindsay case is not. The justice system is under some kind of influence these days. They are definitely not thinking straight.

Anyway, people should be careful, but they never will. Instead, they will find someone again to give their money to for just 10% APY haha.

[CryptopreneurBrainboss]

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?

Ignorance and greed that's the majority cause of people falling victim to this scans. For those that got caught in this because of greed, them I don't pity because they knew what they were getting into before getting scammed. It isn't like the scanners are too smart but this people are just dumb as they let their greed make decisions for them and that's why they're in this situation. For those lacking the information of this being scams, they have some faults too because why aren't they keeping their self informed on what's happening in the industry they're invested into. It's about time people starts taking responsibility for their stupid decisions because we keep making the scammers look smart when we're the ones dumb because simplest tricks keeps foolimg us. Glad though that when the scammers are caught, they get punished well so others learn not to scam others.

[Su-asa]

Let's tell ourselves the truth: in most cases, the victims are not aware that those things are actually Ponzi schemes until they have been scammed. And the reason why those victims didn't know or have any idea about that is actually that the scammers didn't make it look like a scam; they made it look real to the extent that it would be a bit difficult for the victims to know that it's a scam at the earliest stage of the project. Secondly, scammers always offer something they know that people are not aware of, and they also share false stories, good-to-be-true documents and other proofs just to convince people.
Lastly, people get scammed nowadays because of greed; the moment a lot of people stop being greedy, the rate at which people get scammed will be reduced a little bit.

He got a death sentence while these only get 20 years for scamming $245 million?

How is it fair? I am not a lawyer, that's why I am asking this. It does not seem fair to me, as the Lindsay case is not. The justice system is under some kind of influence these days. They are definitely not thinking straight.

That's literally what the world has turned into right now. No matter how good we think a system is, there's always a loophole somewhere, and because it's a case that has to do with money or life and death, the judgment will not be completely fair, as more than half of the judges are also corrupt.

[Humblevirus]

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 someone is so eager that they want to make it quickly, no, nothing that they can’t risk in their life. It is not that most of these people behind all these Ponzi schemes sometimes use sweet words to convince people to invest in the Ponzi scheme, but it is just a normal promise of a return on their investments.However, some stupid people always try to risk it and see what will happen at the end of the day. And you know, there is a strategy that some sets of scammers are using, especially those involved in all these kinds of investment scams. At first, they may be acting like they are real, and possibly, those who invested when they started may be looking to see their investments and the returns as they attract more and more people. But eventually, they run away with their money.So, some people always think that this is how all Ponzi schemes work, and they try to outsmart the scammers. But the fact is that it is hardly possible to know the plans of a scammer.I have known someone who always tries almost every Ponzi scheme it know and it always aware that it is a scam, but it always still being foolish and always fall for it again

[L E G E N D A R Y]

It's true ponzi scheme is as old as anyone could remember it but the only difference is how the scammers are projecting them towards their victims. Every year we get new patterns of Ponzi Scheme scams that are professionally advanced in its operation. I recall a story shared in the forum about how a Ponzi scheme scammer presented his scheme as a crypto company that is selling shares with a certain percent annual yield, unknown to the victims it was funds from new individuals that were being used to be paying old members, just like in circles.

That’s actually the whole idea of Ponzi schemes, use funds of old members to pay new members, so they would get the idea that the scheme is actually paying, and this alone clears a lot of doubts, even some of those who already know that’s it’s a time bomb that’s just waiting to explode, would still wanna risk going in to see if they can at least get a slice of the cake before the whole thing crashes, unknown to them that the whole thing has been planned out from the start.

[Nwada001]

How did some people fall for common Ponzi scheme?
From my understanding there are two reasons.
1 Many people worldwide are trying to find a way to leverage their fiat currency because it will eventually lose purchasing power if it is kept in banks.
They become victims of this Ponzi scheme because they don't understand the scammers model of scamming and looking for ways to leverage their money.

2 People who are blinded by greed are the second reason. They are already aware that anything that seems too good to be true is a fraud.

Even if someone is looking for how to leverage their money, a Ponzi scheme should not be an option for them, especially when they have fallen victim to a Ponzi scheme. They should not continuously be falling victim to a Ponzi scheme; there are better ways to invest money. If not for that, and the fast need to make quick money has blinded most of them, it would really be easy for someone not to fall victim to a Ponzi scheme.

[Obari]

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.

280 years is funny to me is this not simply saying his been given life imprisonment?
How many lives does he even have left or will his family members get to serve the other remaining years just incase he dies?

It is even funny that people are still falling for these type of scam as ponzi which I'm not surprised because with the rate of recession and hardship, every possible opportunity to make easy money would always be appreciated and the worst part of it is that, some of these ponzi scammers have telegram groups with thousands of users on it and I even saw one that was labelled as scam and people are still very active in the group accepting more ponzi offers from same people that scammed you.

[Silverstonez]

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 couldn’t think of anything else but greed and the eager desire to get rich quick.  Believe me when I say that the people who were scammed already knew what ponz schemes, but they said to themselves that they could cash out huge amounts of money before the site crashed.  But luck ran out of them and they were scammed simply because they couldn’t cash out before the site closed down as they had expected.

[nelson4lov]

A few years ago, there was a popular ponzi scheme in my country that rocked a lot of people. Even though it eventually collapsed, I think a lot of the participants knew it was a ponzi scheme but their greed convinced that if they leave early enough, they might win. I believe that as long as life exists, there would always be people greedy enough to try out ponzi schemes even though they have been hurt before by such schemes. There's many of such cases which is why the one in OP doesn't surprise me at all.