David Carmona, the founder of the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme IcomTech, received a 10-year prison sentence following a court decision last week. This development was disclosed on October 4 by the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York.
Carmona To Serve 121 Months In Prison For Crypto Fraud
According to the statement released, Carmona along with other people launched IcomTech in 2018 which was launched as a crypto mining company that helps investors to get profit by getting crypto related investment products.
Carmona and other IcomTech promoters sold these fake investment funds to unsuspecting victims where they guaranteed daily returns and promised to double their money within six months. It was noted that purchases were made with cash, checks, money transfers, and even escrow.
Each investor used to be allowed access to an online portal where they could monitor their accumulated profits. However, these victims always found it difficult to withdraw their profits or large amounts of money online leading to complaints that were excused, delays, and hidden costs for the few successful withdrawals. With increasing levels of complaints and rising tensions, IcomTech began offering native digital coins known as “Icoms” as compensation that they said would increase in value and be used as a means of exchange for goods and services.
This move was also proven false leading to the eventual collapse of the IcomTech Ponzi scheme.
An investigation by US authorities soon revealed that Carmona and other IcomTech associates had sold fake crypto investment products to unsuspecting investors, the funds from which were diverted to attract more victims through lavish speeches and lavish personal expenses.
In December 2022, the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York announced an indictment against Carmona accusing him of conspiracy to defraud to which he pleaded guilty. In October 2024, Judge Jennifer L. Rochon sentenced the crypto fraudster to 121 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release.
Commenting on this, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams expressed his deep appreciation for Carmona’s prison sentence saying:
Carmona’s days of defrauding honest people are over, and now he is facing more time in prison.
Meanwhile, former CEO of IcomTech Marco Ruiz, Ochoa remains in prison after being sentenced to five years in January.
Crypto Market Overview
In other news, the total value of the crypto market is estimated at $ 2.16 trillion following an increase of 1.75% in the last day. The market leader Bitcoin, continues to trade around $62,206 with a gain of 1.70% in the last 24 hours.
Featured image from iStock, chart from Tradingview