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

[Hamza2424]

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.

Bro, there have been dozens of Ponzi schemes in my country as well that scammed people out of millions of dollars and fled, while the authorities failed to understand two things. One, where did all that money come from, which people don't even file, and they failed to seize the funds because those projects took everything out.

They first ran these Ponzi schemes for at least 5 months, and once the early adopters and earners started making videos to get more referrals, the project started to increase the rewards so more fishes could be trapped.

That's a big sign of a project turning out to be a Ponzi scheme. When you see them growing in number, they will increase their offers. The bigger the offer, the more confirmed it becomes that they are running a Ponzi scheme. So bro, I have experienced this a few times, that's why I never invest, especially in times when they offer high rewards.

[tread93]

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.

Yeah I honestly can’t believe it either Chi, but people are dumb! They will hand over thousands of dollars to over a complete strangers who are good at sales and convincing individuals out of pure desperation to make money and its just insane bro. What are you gonna do though. Hopefully these folks will wise up and find a good financial advisor and learn how to invest money on their own as well so they don’t get scammed

[Myleschetty]

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.

You're correct. I want you to know that no one on the planet will choose to invest in something that will ultimately lead to their demise.
Even though we are aware of how a Ponzi scheme operates, some people are unaware of it. For instance, even though many people are aware of the ColdCard wallet hack, some people are still ignorant of it; the same thing goes for knowing the true information regarding Ponzi schemes model of operation. Additionally, we also have made some mistakes when we don't understand Bitcoin.

[L E G E N D A R Y]

You're correct. I want you to know that no one on the planet will choose to invest in something that will ultimately lead to their demise.
Even though we are aware of how a Ponzi scheme operates, some people are unaware of it. For instance, even though many people are aware of the ColdCard wallet hack, some people are still ignorant of it; the same thing goes for knowing the true information regarding Ponzi schemes model of operation. Additionally, we also have made some mistakes when we don't understand Bitcoin.

The tricky part about this is that, a lot of folks only end up recognizing a scam only after understanding how it really works, and when people become too ignorant or greedy, they see almost anything as legit. And that’s why it’s usually more effective when you take time to educate people, rather than simply just telling or warning them to be careful. And concerning bitcoin, in order to truly prevent certain mistakes or irrational decisions that can cause serious losses, one needs to take time to educate themselves and understand the risks behind self custody, investment decisions and security as these are the cores of Bitcoin.

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

The tricky part about this is that, a lot of folks only end up recognizing a scam only after understanding how it really works, and when people become too ignorant or greedy, they see almost anything as legit. And that’s why it’s usually more effective when you take time to educate people, rather than simply just telling or warning them to be careful. And concerning bitcoin, in order to truly prevent certain mistakes or irrational decisions that can cause serious losses, one needs to take time to educate themselves and understand the risks behind self custody, investment decisions and security as these are the cores of Bitcoin.

Most people only learn about scams after they lost money to scammers. Before such incident and money loss, they possibly were exposed to resources teaching about scams but they simply ignored these helpful and important resources. They are careless from practice, lazy and don't want to learn new things even they are very vital knowledge which is meaningful to protect their money safely from scammers.

Like this sticky thread [General] Crypto scams, attacks and malware.
How many people spent time to read that even they join the forum as forum newbies, and actually don't have knowledge about Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and most common scams.

[L E G E N D A R Y]

Like this sticky thread [General] Crypto scams, attacks and malware.
How many people spent time to read that even they join the forum as forum newbies, and actually don't have knowledge about Bitcoin, cryptocurrency and most common scams.

Well maybe that’s because they feel that they already know it all, I mean about scams and their techniques. This is mostly common with old users who have been around the space and maybe have learned a few things about scam from threads and people around here, and so they feel there’s no more need to learn further, besides they’ll be able to detect a scammer when they bump into one.

But they fail to realize that scammers and scams are ever evolving, and every now and then, they are upgrading and updating their schemes just to make sure they remain convincing to people. And if it is someone that’s not updated on the latest schemes, they’ll just gracefully land themselves into the hands of scammers without even realizing it.

[Faisal2202]

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.

I won't jump to conclusions like this. That's why I said I am not a lawyer and I don't know much about the law there, but I have seen many cases and different judges have different decisions. You just have to represent your case in the best way possible. Also, there are privileges as well. I will wait for someone to shed more light deeply, someone who knows the law very well. Although I can take help from the internet or AI.

I am sure, there must be a solid reason for this.

[Mr Reporter]

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.

One of the painful facts about what you made mentioned “ about people who have already been scammed once still go back to it again” and the big questions of the day is whether they are dumb? You see the faster way to make this quick money has caused alot of people their lives, property, and all…and the desperation has really played a big role and has led so many people to scam and many are still believing in these Ponzi promises…but this is promised and the math will never change, If it pays old people with new people’s money it will later collapse with time…