- A couple from Tennessee (USA) created a criminal scheme called “Blessings of God Thru Crypto”.
- They defrauded more than 100 people of $6 million in six months.
- The investors’ money was spent on college tuition and paying off debts.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has accused a Tennessee couple of creating a fraudulent scheme involving cryptocurrencies. Michael and Amanda Griffis, owners of a real estate company in Clarksville, suggested that clients invest in the God’s Blessing cryptocurrency pool.
“Defendants claimed that the pool funds were well-protected. Working in the real estate industry, the spouses were able to convince the victims that this income-generating scheme was profitable and legal,” the CFTC said.
Participants in the pool were told that their savings would be used to trade cryptocurrency futures. Between July 2022 and January 2023, more than 100 people were victimized by scammers. Among them are mortgage brokers and Griffis’ real estate clients.
Defrauded investors transferred funds to Michael Griffis’ account. He would then send them to the Coinbase exchange and convert them to USDT or BTC. The fraudster transferred cryptocurrency to Apex Trading Platform. However, during the entire time Blessings of God Thru Crypto was in operation, the couple never completed a single transaction.
More than $4 million in customer funds were transferred to the criminals’ wallets. Michael and Amanda Griffis spent the remaining amount on college tuition for family members, buying a car and paying off credit card debt.
The CFTC says the fraudsters organized a Ponzi scheme. It is a common financial scam in which funds from new “investors” are passed on to previous ones as profits. Such pyramid schemes are illegal and banned in many countries around the world.
In May, authorities in South Korea uncovered a similar scheme. Investors were guaranteed returns of up to 16% and offered to invest in “virtual tokens”. The fraudsters caused $330 million in losses.
South Korean authorities uncovered a similar scheme in May.