The Arizona man pleaded guilty to the $13 million Crypto Ponzi scheme, up to 15 years

The man who helped design the $13 million Ponzi scheme, pretending to be a cryptography-savvy government employee, admitted his guilt in federal court.

Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr. pleaded guilty on Monday to one count of money laundering and conspiracy to interfere with justice, according to a statement from the US Lawyer’s Office for the Central District of California.

From 2017 to 2023, Mazzotta worked with Australian co-defendant David Gilbert Saffron to target victims through the web of crypto investment companies with names such as Mind Capital and Cloud9Capital.

The pair misguided that they used an automated trading bot with artificial intelligence to generate high crypto trading returns that have never been realized.

The indictment from December 2023 revealed that Mazzotta operates under several aliases, including “Vincent Midnight,” “Delta Prime,” and “Director Vincenzo.”

The indictment details how the conspirators spent investor funding on luxury goods, including private jet charters, Hollywood Hills apartment rentals, personal security details, and luxury hotel accommodations.

Crypto Recovery Scam

Mazzotta and Saffron also founded Federal Crypto Resirment, a fictional entity designed to appear as a government-supported Crypto Recovery Service.

The victim, who had already lost money in the first scheme, was then charged an additional “investigation” fee to the very companies that stole the funds.

The expert said Decryption The federal crypto reserve tactic represents a particularly cruel form of secondary sacrifice that exploits the despair and shame of victims after losing money to the initial scam.

“Crypto recovery scams are very common among fraudsters who target victims by claiming that they can help recover stolen cryptography,” said Karan Pujara, founder of fraud defense platform Scambuzzer.

“The hope of regaining money and feeling guilty from committing a crime makes the victim vulnerable,” Puhala added.

Experts advised victims approached by recovery services to “block” communication “by not responding, just blocking.”

Puhala advised investors who value AI trading services to apply simple logic tests. “If the returns they’re offering are too good, that’s a scam,” he said. “If anyone really had such a profitable algorithm, they wouldn’t sell subscriptions for just a few hundred dollars.”

Mazotta is scheduled to be sentenced December 15th and faces up to 15 years in federal prison.

The incident comes amid a surge in crypto-related fraud targeting various communities.

Last week, Denver’s Great Juice prosecuted a charge of 40 felony, which allegedly adjusted a $3.4 million crypto scheme through an online church, promising “God’s Leader” on unworthy indxcoin.