Trade Coin Club Lawsuit: $295 Million Crypto Ponzi Scam

Trade Coin Club faces a lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission. TCC founders scam $295 Million worth of Bitcoins from 100,000 investors.

A Short History of Trade Coin Club

A 2017 YahooFinance article discussed Joff Paradise’s announcement of the Trade Coin Club’s (TCC) website release. 

Joff Paradise founded the Trade Coin Club as a way of helping people access the growing Bitcoin trading. It was supposed to be able to provide various ways of earning through the company’s education-based products and closed-source software.

These digital assets allowed the club members to participate in the Bitcoin trading of Trade Coin Club Affiliate. Furthermore, TCC’s products were designed to bring in profit and huge potential income. 

Also, Trade Coin Club had a tiered investment model for investors who wanted to trade based on their risk tolerance and the profit potential. The three investment categories didn’t require prior BTC trading experience or knowledge. 

SEC Lawsuit Against Trade Coin Club

On November 4, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)  filed charges against Douver Torres Braga, Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tetreault for violations of broker-dealer registration provisions, antifraud and securities registration provisions.

As revealed by the investigation, Douver Torres Braga, creator and manager of Trade Coin Club received 8,396 btc ($55 million at the time). Joff Paradise, Keleionalani Akana Taylor, and Jonathan Tereault each profited $1.4 million, $2.6 million, and $625,000 individually. 

All in all, their crypto scheme robbed 82,000 worth of btc from 100,000 investors worldwide. As a result, these separate amounts total to 295 million. 

How Braga Conned 100,000 Trade Coin Club Investors

Securities and Exchange Commission’s statement revealed that the TCC was just a crypto pyramid scheme disguised as a multi-level marketing program. It operated for 2 years, from 2016 to 2018. 

Braga and his associates promised a daily minimum return of 0.35%. They created a false promise of high returns. When in reality, Braga and Paradise were just using crypto asset trading bots. In other words, the money produced from the trading asset bots went straight to the pockets of the founders and promoters. 

False promises about the bot’s “millions of microtransactions” per second were used to entice the investors into joining this crypto ponzi scheme. On the contrary, Braga, Paradise and the others hid behind Trade Coin Club to steal hundreds of millions from their members. 

In his statement, David Hirsch, Chief of the Enforcement Division’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, said

“Fraud is fraud, regardless of the types of investors you have defrauded and the types of securities used in the fraud.”

Crypto Red Flags

Authorities always encourage investors to be wary of cryptocurrency programs that guarantee high returns over a short period of time. 

The SEC’s definition of a Ponzi scheme is “an investment scam that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors.”

Here are some ways to spot a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme.

If they offer:

First, marketing programs that consist of various levels or classes – the higher your membership class, the more benefits you gain. In the case of crypto, the more crypto you spend to level up, the better your access to trading options. 

Next is consistent and speedy returns – it is basic knowledge among investors that the only thing constant about the market is its volatility and it takes time for any investment to grow.

Then, assurance of low to zero risk – this is the biggest lie anyone can tell you. High risk, high profit has always been the name of the game in cryptocurrency. Prices can swing upwards or crash downwards anytime. This is why newbies are advised to only invest what they are prepared to lose. 

And lastly, difficulty in withdrawals– when it is time for the investors to cash out, they encounter various troubles. It’s either the website is down, the disbursing officer is not around, or they get another offer with higher profits in exchange for not withdrawing their money. 

It is highly important that people who are planning to go into cryptocurrency trading be familiar with how Bitcoin works. Also, make it a habit to conduct background checks on new crypto companies and verify their reputation. Lastly, always ask professionals or experts before deciding to put in your hard-earned money in a cryptocurrency company. 

No Stranger to Ponzi Scams

The SEC has had its fair share of big crypto scams. Just this August, SEC filed a complaint against 11 people connected to Forsage, an Ethereum-based decentralized application. Forsage allegedly defrauded its investors of $300 million worth of cryptocurrency. 

Forsage entered deals with their clients using smart contracts that operated on Ethereum, Tron and Binance’s platforms. Additionally, The founders and its promoters called Crypto-Crusaders used a pyramid scheme where the management team recruited investors who had to recruit another set of investors as well.

Final Word on Trade Coin Club Lawsuit

Evidently, this recent incident just shows how a lot of people are still gullible to the get-rich-quick scheme of Ponzi scams.

Scammers strike anytime and anywhere. Undoubtedly, should always be on our guard and not allow our hard-earned money to waste. Ponzi scams siphon money out of their victims, which is hard to get out of because the people who invested their cash wait on their empty promises.

Stay alert, CryptoCoin Believers! More importantly, stay tuned for our upcoming posts!