There is a financial trend that seems to be gathering more and more popularity……cryptocurrency.
My daughter has ventured into this and her investment is not paying off as well as she had hoped…..and with any financial thing there is always the chance of fraud……and crypto is no different…..
Cryptocurrency firm Forsage used technology undreamt of when Charles Ponzi was ripping off investors in the 1920s but regulators say the basic idea was the same: A scam in which investors promised big returns were paid off with money from later investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged 11 people in connection with the scheme, which the regulator says raised more than $300 million from investors in the US and elsewhere, CBS reports. The SEC says Forsage was a pyramid scheme as well as a Ponzi scheme, with investors making profits by recruiting others. Investors were promised a “powerful long-term source of passive income.”
When it was launched in early 2020, Forsage claimed to be a decentralized smart contract platform operating on the Ethereum, Tron and Binance blockchains, but regulators say its real function was scamming investors, reports CNBC. “As the complaint alleges, Forsage is a fraudulent pyramid scheme launched on a massive scale and aggressively marketed to investors,” Carolyn Welshhans, acting chief of the SEC’s Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, said in a statement. “Fraudsters cannot circumvent the federal securities laws by focusing their schemes on smart contracts and blockchains.”
The SEC says it charged Forsage’s four founders—Vladimir Okhotnikov, Jane Doe aka Lola Ferrari, Mikhail Sergeev, and Sergey Maslakov—who are believed to be living in Russia, the Republic of Georgia, and Indonesia. The SEC charged another seven people with violating federal securities laws, including members of the “Crypto Crusaders,” a group that promoted the scheme in the US, TechCrunch reports. The regulator says two of the defendants have agreed to settle the charges.
Settle on charges?
They were defrauding investors…..no settling should be involved….doing time and make them pay through the nose and ban them from ever working in financial markets again.
If you are considering this investment remember one thing…..Buyer Beware…..If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is…..
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
I have avoided this like the plague. My oldest stepson had a disaster with Bitcoin and lost over $5,000. But he wouldn’t be told. It is reminiscent of ‘Pyramid selling’ from the 1970s to me. Nobody wins!
Best wishes, Pete.
I am an old fart and refuse to give money with nothing in return but promises. chuq
We have a fiat currency. The inherent value of our currency has one thing that bitcoin does not have. We must pay our taxes with dollars. Otherwise, bitcoin has a feature that makes it better. It takes energy to produce bitcoin, which tends to keep bitcoin relatively scarce. The only problem with that expenditure of energy produces something that has no real practical utility. On the other hand, to enable Congress to spend as much as it wants, the Fed can print as much money as it wants. The only disincentive is inflation, and that doesn’t seem to be enough to stop Congress (or the Fed). Why? Congress gets to spend more and more and more money. Inflation operates as a hidden tax, one that steals from the taxpayers to enrich the ruling class.
Is inflation a Ponzi scheme? Not really, but when politicians pretend they cannot prevent inflation that is a type of fraud.
Buyer beware…if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is….period. chuq
Probably like the politicians who tell us we can spend and spend and spend without consequence. The deficit does not matter. The Green New Deal will make us rich.
All bills make someone rich and it is not the people you pretend to care about. chuq
When you are questioned or feel you have been challenged, you cloud the discussion with these nongermane insults. Who are the people I supposedly pretend to care about? You don’t care enough to be specific or accurate.
And you sir do not address the post…it is about fraud in the cryto markets….I do not need some half ass economic lesson….Maybe sticking to the subject in hand and trying to make someone uncomfortable would be more productive. chuq
I stuck to the subject. Bitcoin is an alternative medium of exchange. You say it is unsafe, but relative to what? We have a fiat currency under the control of politicians nobody should trust. How safe is that?
Oh crap…okay that was an FYI post…I do not trust it because I am old and want to have something in my hand….we can argument semantics but nothing will change my opinion….kinda like yours on abortion or 2nd amendment…..chuq