The Florida man lost nearly 860,000 USD to a fraudulent cryptocurrency training school based in Denver, USA. According to the indictment, the victim was lured to a fake exchange promising huge profits only to fall into a trap.
In a federal court lawsuit, victim Brian Firestone alleges that Alpha Stock Investment Training Center (ASITC), operating in downtown Denver, collaborated with the fraudulent exchange CoinBridge Partners in Cherry Creek in a scam scheme. Firestone said he first encountered a person named John Smith in December, who claimed to represent the cryptocurrency training school.
Florida man sues cryptocurrency training school after losing nearly 860,000 USD
According to Firestone, Smith offered to guide him on foundational knowledge and in-depth technical analysis in cryptocurrency trading. This person also gifted him 500 USD as a starter, but that was just a ploy for a more sophisticated scam.
The website of this training school, which is now out of operation, lists the address 1600 Lincoln St. This page guides users to carry out all their cryptocurrency transaction services on CoinBridge, a fundraising platform that raised 10 million USD from 600 participating investors.
According to Firestone, CoinBridge is a fraudulent organization posing as a legitimate exchange. The case states that ASITC used a method called signal trading.
Specifically, ASITC instructors send messages to students at various times with clear instructions on buying and selling orders. Students must follow the commands and then end by opening an order on their CoinBridge account.
Firestone recounts that the initial investment of 500 USD from Smith's gift quickly grew to 55,000 USD, prompting him to add another 50,000 USD in January. Within weeks, his account balance reached 2 million USD. He expressed his gratitude to the 'professor' via a message on February 8: 'Teacher, I have to thank you,' Firestone sent. 'My results are outstanding. Thank you for helping me with the trades today. I'm so excited!'
However, things started to go downhill after a losing order reduced the balance to 12,000 USD. Firestone stated he transferred 470,000 USD and borrowed 330,000 USD from ASITC to continue trading.
He describes that after pouring in more money, the balance on CoinBridge reached 24.5 million USD until a USDT order on March 9 could not be executed. 'I couldn't close that order,' Firestone messaged. 'I can't close the order.' He believed that a system error caused this incident, wiping out the balance on the platform.
Two days after that incident, he borrowed another million USD from ASITC, bringing the total amount borrowed to 6.6 million USD. However, on May 1, his account was locked for unclear reasons, preventing him from repaying the remaining loan.
In the indictment, Firestone holds ASITC, CoinBridge, Smith, and founding platform Raymond Torres responsible for fraud, corruption, and theft. CoinBridge Partners, actually based in Wyoming, has denied any involvement in this scam.
Currently, over 2.1 billion USD has been stolen in cryptocurrency-related scams since the beginning of 2025. According to Ronghui Gu, co-founder of CertiK, most of the thefts were due to attacks on digital wallets and improper key management. The trend of hackers shifting from targeting platforms to attacking users is clearly accelerating. In 2024, phishing scams caused losses of over 1 billion USD through more than 300 incidents, becoming the most damaging attack method in the cryptocurrency industry.
Source: https://tintucbitcoin.com/chang-florida-mat-860k-usd-vi-lua-dao/
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