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Stuart man pleads guilty in $100 million crypto Ponzi scheme.

Home Stuart man pleads guilty in $100 million crypto Ponzi scheme.
By: Antonio Smith / February 18, 2025

Stuart man pleads guilty in $100 million crypto Ponzi scheme, is ordered to pay $1.1 million

  • STUART — A Stuart man was ordered Feb. 4 to pay more than $1.1 million for being the “master trader” of a fraudulent $100 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, court records show.
  • Joshua Nicholas, 30, was touted as a “genius” and the head trader of EmpiresX, an international pyramid-style Ponzi scheme disguised as a cryptocurrency investment platform, according to the federal indictment. EmpiresX, founded in 2020 and defunct by the end of 2021, was operational in more than 50 countries, court records show.
  • Nicholas was indicted June 2022 on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud, which stemmed from an investigation by the FBI and Homeland Security. He pled guilty to the latter in September.

    2022, court records show. 
  • Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga, of the Southern District of Florida, ordered Nicholas to pay $867,000 in civil monetary penalties and $289,000 in disgorgement — a legally mandated repayment of ill-gotten gains. Also, the judge permanently banned Nicholas from trading in U.S. financial markets.
  • In order to reel in investors, Nicholas held regular investor calls and conducted in-person investor meetings demonstrating the “EX BOT,” an investment program that falsely claimed to generate guaranteed returns, which would be paid out in cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin and Ether, court records show.
  • Instead, EmpiresX was revealed as a Ponzi-style scheme that obtained approximately $100 million from misled investors, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Empires X laundered investors’ funds through a foreign-based cryptocurrency exchange and paid out early investors with money from later investors, the DOJ said in a news release.

  • During one investor call in 2021, Nicholas pretended to be a trader at a multinational investment bank in New York City. By hiding his true identity, he was able to conceal from investors and potential investors his prior eight-year ban by the National Futures Association for investment-related misconduct, court records show.
  • EmpiresX paid Nicholas $289,000 for his efforts to reel in investors, court records show. By November 2021, as EmpiresX teetered toward insolvency, victim investors were unable to withdraw their money, court records show.

  • EmpiresX co-founders Emerson Pires and Flavio Goncalves, both Brazilian citizens, were ordered by the judge to pay more than $96 million in civil monetary penalties and $32 million in disgorgement. They were charged June 2022 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.
  • Pires diverted about $1.5 million of investor funds to himself for personal expenditures including travel, housing and luxury vehicles, court records show. Goncalves misappropriated at least $520,000 of investor money to spend on luxury hotels, fancy cars, jewelry and payments to relatives, court records show.
  • Pires and Goncalves failed to appear in court, according to the default judgment ruling, and are considered fugitives.

 

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