{"id":36147,"date":"2025-02-06T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-06T11:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/?p=36147"},"modified":"2025-02-06T13:37:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-06T10:37:49","slug":"cftc-fines-empiresx-founders-130-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/cftc-fines-empiresx-founders-130-million\/","title":{"rendered":"CFTC Fines EmpiresX Founders $130 Million"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>US court fines Brazilian EmpiresX<\/strong> founders over $130 million for<a href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/the-latest-on-bitcoin-and-cryptocurrencies-6-february\/\"><strong> crypto fraud<\/strong><\/a> that misled investors.<\/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\/cftc-fines-empiresx-founders-130-million\/#Promise_of_High_Returns_Misled_Investors\" title=\"Promise of High Returns Misled Investors\">Promise of High Returns Misled Investors<\/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\/cftc-fines-empiresx-founders-130-million\/#Founders_Fled_Court_Found_Them_Guilty\" title=\"Founders Fled, Court Found Them Guilty\">Founders Fled, Court Found Them Guilty<\/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\/cftc-fines-empiresx-founders-130-million\/#CFTC_Issues_Hefty_Fines_and_Trading_Ban\" title=\"CFTC Issues Hefty Fines and Trading Ban\">CFTC Issues Hefty Fines and Trading Ban<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Promise_of_High_Returns_Misled_Investors\"><\/span>Promise of High Returns Misled Investors<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>On February 4, Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the<strong> U.S. District Court<\/strong> for the Southern District of Florida issued a ruling imposing permanent bans, financial penalties, and additional legal sanctions against <strong>Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves, and their associate Joshua Nicholas<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, <strong>Empires Consulting<\/strong> operated a fraudulent scheme under the name <strong>EmpiresX<\/strong>, falsely promising <strong>unrealistic returns<\/strong> to investors. Pires and Goncalves allegedly <strong>raised at least $40 million<\/strong> through deceptive crypto advertisements. However, instead of investing these funds as promised, they misused them to <strong>purchase Bitcoin, Ether, and USDT,<\/strong> restrict withdrawals, and display fake profits from non-existent investments.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities found that the founders used investor funds for <strong>luxury expenses and travel<\/strong>. Despite this, investigators managed to recover <strong>approximately $22.8 million in digital assets<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Founders_Fled_Court_Found_Them_Guilty\"><\/span>Founders Fled, Court Found Them Guilty<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The court found EmpiresX executives guilty of <strong>fraud, misrepresentation, operating without proper registration, misappropriation of funds, and violating financial regulations<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>While <strong>Joshua Nicholas pleaded guilty<\/strong> to securities fraud on September 8, 2022, <strong>Pires and Goncalves fled to Brazil<\/strong> after learning about the CFTC\u2019s charges. In July 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice moved to classify them as fugitives. However, since Brazilian law prohibits the extradition of its citizens, their arrest and extradition to the U.S. remain unlikely.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"CFTC_Issues_Hefty_Fines_and_Trading_Ban\"><\/span>CFTC Issues Hefty Fines and Trading Ban<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The court ordered $32.1 million in disgorgement and $96.5 million in civil penalties for the founders, totaling $128.6 million in fines. Additionally, Joshua Nicholas was fined $289,000 in disgorgement and $867,000 in civil penalties.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the <strong>CFTC <\/strong>secured a permanent ban preventing the defendants from trading in U.S. financial markets.<\/p>\n<p>CFTC Acting Chair <strong>Caroline Pham<\/strong> announced that the agency would move away from enforcement-driven regulation, while <strong>Enforcement Director Brian Young<\/strong> revealed plans to establish a new task force to uphold public trust in market integrity.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>You can also freely share your thoughts and comments about the topic in the comment section. Additionally, don\u2019t forget to follow us on our\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffcc00;\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/coinengineernews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><strong>Telegram,\u00a0<\/strong><\/a><a style=\"color: #ffcc00;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@CoinEngineer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><strong>YouTube<\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffcc00;\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/coinengineers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><strong>Twitter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/span>channels for the latest <span style=\"color: #ffcc00;\"><a style=\"color: #ffcc00;\" title=\"News\" href=\"https:\/\/coinengineer.net\/blog\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\">news<\/a> <\/span>and updates.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US court fines Brazilian EmpiresX founders over $130 million for crypto fraud that misled investors. Promise of High Returns Misled Investors On February 4, Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a ruling imposing permanent bans, financial penalties, and additional legal sanctions against Emerson Pires, Flavio Goncalves,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":36149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,11502,7090,1530,11501,1729,119],"class_list":["post-36147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto-news","tag-bitcoin","tag-cftc-acting-chair-caroline-pham","tag-commodity-futures-trading-commission-cftc","tag-crypto-fraud","tag-empiresx","tag-ether","tag-usdt"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CFTC Fines EmpiresX Founders $130 Million - Coin Engineer<\/title>\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\/cftc-fines-empiresx-founders-130-million\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CFTC Fines EmpiresX Founders $130 Million - Coin Engineer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"US court fines Brazilian EmpiresX founders over $130 million for crypto fraud that misled investors. 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