TechFlow, July 29 — According to the U.S. Department of Justice, a man from Arizona has admitted to charges of money laundering and obstruction of justice in connection with a cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme. The defendant, Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr., also known as Vincent Midnight, pleaded guilty to the charges.
Mazzotta and co-defendant David Saffron operated through fictitious cryptocurrency investment firms such as Mind Capital and Cloud9Capital, promising investors high returns from AI-powered automated trading bots for cryptocurrency trading. They also created a fake entity called the "Federal Crypto Reserve" (FCR), using it to scam victims into paying investigation fees. The fraud caused over $13 million in losses.
Mazzotta faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, with up to 10 years for money laundering and up to 5 years for obstruction of justice.
