SEC busts ICO involed in Colored Ponzi SchemeWhen Initial Coin Offering ICO Argyle Coin entered the market, it was viewed as a game-changer, but then it had to make a disgraceful exit.
The U.S Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought Argyle Coin; a thirty million dollar ($30 million) cryptocurrency, to a halt. The company which guaranteed to make fancy colored diamonds available for everyone to invest in, swindled more than three hundred investors.
The elaborate scheme was projected as a blockchain based marketplace for buying and selling of these valuable and rare rocks. SEC’s press release stated that Argyle Coin was just a Ponzi scheme that deceived novice investors.
Jose Angel Aman, the con man of this whole fraud, bought real estate and horses for himself with the investors’ money. The Director of the SEC’s Miami Regional Office Eric I. Bustillo stated that in an effort to loot retail investors continuously, Aman created a complex web of companies and promoted the crypto Ponzi scheme.
The clients were to be offered risk-free investment by Argyle Coin, given that ICO is backed by over twenty-five million dollars ($25million) worth of fancy colored diamonds that are secure in Malca-Amit vaults.
It is worth mentioning that Aman was previously charged with violating securities anti-fraud provisions for carrying out two similar scams before the Argyle Coin: Natural Diamonds and Eagle.
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