The man at the heart of the massive Crypto Ponzi scheme will spend nearly eight years at the bar after he sentenced 97 months in Brooklyn on Friday.
Dwayne Golden, 57, has been convicted of fraud in his role in adjusting fraud through three digital asset companies, Empowercoin, Ecoinplus and Jet-Coin, scams more than $40 million in investors, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has announced.
Federal prosecutors said Golden and his partners had promised guaranteed benefits from crypto transactions that never happened. Instead, the funds were collected in line with classic features of the Ponzi scheme, which repay previous investors and line up in the pockets of the co-conspirators.
The company collapsed shortly after collecting investor deposits, leaving victims with a huge loss.
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Fake crypto trading companies
The scam was run from April to August 2017. Along with Gregory Aggesen and Marquis Egerton (also known as Mardy Eger), they mistakenly sold the company as international crypto traders along with Golden.
After their companies collapsed, Golden and his co-defendants attempted to interfere with both the Federal Trade Commission investigation and the Federal Ju Court investigation, including destroying evidence and providing false information.
“Golden and his co-defendants did not provide legal services and none of the companies were engaged in the actual cryptocurrency trade as they allegedly,” said US lawyer Joseph Nocera, who described the scheme as an exploitation of investors’ excitement over new technologies.
Golden was also ordered to confiscate about $2.46 million. Co-defendant William White has been sentenced to 30 months, while Agesen and Egerton are awaiting their sentence.
FBI assistant director Christopher Leia called the plot “an elaborate scheme rooted in fraudulent investors and false promises.” He emphasized that Golden’s actions “a complete disregard for integrity,” and praised the sentence as a warning to other con artists.
DOJ has asked investors who suffered losses from the scheme to file a claim for compensation through the FBI’s dedicated portal.
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Five plead guilty to a $37 million crypto fraud
In a similar incident, five men pleaded guilty earlier this month to adjusting a $36.9 million crypto fraud that scams Americans and raised funds at Cambodia’s crypto fraud centre.
The defendant targeted the victims through social media, messaging apps and dating platforms, seducing them with the false promise of profitable crypto investments.
To date, over $2.1 billion has been stolen in cryptography cases in 2025, with most losses linked to wallet compromises and important mismanagement, said Ronghui Gu, co-founder of Certik.
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