{"id":20751,"date":"2024-05-18T12:00:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T09:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinengineer.io\/?p=20751"},"modified":"2024-05-18T09:39:23","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T06:39:23","slug":"cryptocurrency-personality-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/cryptocurrency-personality-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"Cryptocurrency Personality Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The virtual money is interpersonal. <strong>Thomas John Sfraga<\/strong> was found guilty of wire fraud after swindling more than a dozen people into fundraising projects that never started, in particular fake cryptocurrency plots. As written in <strong>the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)<\/strong> complaint, Sfraga induced the victim to invest some verifiable amount in the cryptocurrency wallet by promising him\u00a0 huge profits.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_71 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/cryptocurrency-personality-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud\/#Promises_of_High_Returns\" title=\"Promises of High Returns\">Promises of High Returns<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/cryptocurrency-personality-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud\/#Misappropriation_of_Funds\" title=\"Misappropriation of Funds\">Misappropriation of Funds<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/cryptocurrency-personality-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud\/#The_Broader_Context_of_Crypto_Fraud\" title=\"The Broader Context of Crypto Fraud\">The Broader Context of Crypto Fraud<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Promises_of_High_Returns\"><\/span>Promises of High Returns<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>On May 17, the DoJ statement shows that Schwarz of Sfraga and Zhazillo both have relevant backgrounds in podcasting and cryptocurrencies, with Schwarz serving as an event MC in New York, and have promised as high as 60% revenues within 3 months.<strong> In a prioritized order, the agency revealed that Sfraga was running a Ponzi scheme.<\/strong> Instead of gaining a legitimate profit, he paid people who recently joined his scheme with the funds newcomers pledged.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Misappropriation_of_Funds\"><\/span>Misappropriation of Funds<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Although in reality Sfargas changed the funds for personal expenses, the investigation revealed that he paid off the creditors (previous victims and business associates). Besides being friends and neighbors, Sfraga betrayed many victims throughout the process of getting rich by tricking them over <strong>$1.3 million.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Broader_Context_of_Crypto_Fraud\"><\/span>The Broader Context of Crypto Fraud<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Such gains are not extraordinary, though, with crypto often being the highest-rising sector. <a href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/bitcoin-spot-etfs-see-inflows-for-4-consecutive-days\/\">Bitcoin<\/a> went as high as 65% from January 24 to April 24 this year, based on CoinMarketCap&#8217;s data. Bitcoin\u2019s price was actually tagged at $66,825 during writing. Multiple altcoins, like<a href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/meme-coin-trader-who-made-14-million-from-pepe-starts-selling\/\"> Pepe (PEPE)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/memecoin-mania-dogwifhat-bonk-kangamoon-rise\/\">Dogwifhat (WIF),<\/a> have yielded remarkable returns of 603% and 541%, respectively, during this timeframe.<\/p>\n<p>Cryptocurrencies have experienced an upsurge in their value in recent months. However, this has not been a smooth ride, as they have also been linked with fraudulent activities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The virtual money is interpersonal. Thomas John Sfraga was found guilty of wire fraud after swindling more than a dozen people into fundraising projects that never started, in particular fake cryptocurrency plots. As written in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) complaint, Sfraga induced the victim to invest some verifiable amount in the cryptocurrency<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[1531,6199],"class_list":["post-20751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-news","category-genel","tag-ponzi-scheme","tag-thomas-john-sfraga"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cryptocurrency Personality Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud - Coin Engineer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thomas John Sfraga pleads guilty to wire fraud after deceiving victims into investing in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes, swindling over $1.3 million.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/cryptocurrency-personality-pleads-guilty-to-wire-fraud\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cryptocurrency Personality Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud - 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