Co-founder of OmegaPro charged with $650 million Crypto fraud

Two founders of OmegaPro, Michael Shannon Sims and Juan Carlos Reynoso, have been charged by U.S. federal prosecutors with running a "global fraud scheme" worth over $650 million under the guise of a legitimate foreign exchange and cryptocurrency trading platform.

According to allegations, since January 2019, Sims and Reynoso established a multi-level marketing scheme #OmegaPro , promising high returns (up to 300%) through foreign exchange trading, while in reality, they were diverting investors' funds into crypto wallets they controlled. To conceal the source of the money, they distributed it to insiders and senior promoters.

The duo is accused of luring thousands of victims worldwide with lavish events (such as projecting the OmegaPro logo on the Burj Khalifa) and displays of a luxurious lifestyle on social media.

The fraud scheme began to collapse in November 2022 when OmegaPro disabled withdrawals. Despite reassurances about transitioning to a new platform, victims were still unable to access their funds. OmegaPro had received fraud warnings from multiple countries before its collapse in July 2023.

Sims and Reynoso face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count if convicted. This case is part of a broader crackdown by the U.S. Department of Justice on cryptocurrency crime, following other major cases such as Gotbit, which used wash trading to inflate token volumes. The ability to recover stolen assets in such scams is extremely rare. #anhbacong