The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tetreault for their roles in Trade Coin Club. This fraudulent crypto Ponzi scheme raised more than 82,000 bitcoin, valued at $295 million at the time, from more than 100,000 investors worldwide. Like all MLM Ponzi schemes, Trade Coin Club only enriched its owners and top promoters. Brage fled Florida for Brazil behindMLM notes.
According to the SEC’s complaint, Dover Torres Braga created and controlled Trade Coin Club. This MLM scheme operated from 2016 through 2018 and promised profits from the trading activities of a purported crypto asset trading bot. The SEC alleges that Braga and Paradise lured investors with false representations that the bot made “millions of microtransactions” every second and that investors would receive minimum returns of 0.35 percent daily. However, instead of deploying investor funds for the purported trading bot, Braga allegedly siphoned off investor funds for his own benefit and to pay a network of worldwide Trade Coin Club promoters, including Paradise, Taylor, and Tetreault.
The SEC further alleges that Trade Coin Club operated as a Ponzi scheme and that investor withdrawals came entirely from deposits made by new investors, not from any crypto asset trading activity by a bot or otherwise. The complaint further alleges that Douver Torres Braga personally earned at least 8,396 bitcoin of the amounts invested (worth $55 million at the time), Joff Paradise received 238 bitcoin (worth more than $1.4 million at the time), Keleionalani Akana Taylor received 735 bitcoin (worth more than $2.6 million at the time), and Jonathan Tetreault received 158 bitcoin (worth more than $625,000 at the time).
The SEC’s complaint seeks injunctive relief, disgorgement, and civil penalties. The SEC filed a second complaint alleging that Jonathan Tetreault violated the securities and broker-dealer registration provisions of the federal securities laws. Tetreault agreed to settle the SEC’s charges without admitting or denying the allegations. The settlement is subject to Court approval.
