The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against two siblings for allegedly running a $60 million Ponzi scheme involving a fraudulent cryptocurrency trading bot. According to the SEC’s complaint, Jonathan and Tanner Adam, residents of Georgia, lured investors with promises of high returns through a bot that purportedly identified arbitrage opportunities in the cryptocurrency market.
The brothers allegedly claimed that their bot could simultaneously buy and sell cryptocurrencies on different exchanges to exploit tiny price differences, generating consistent profits for investors. However, the SEC alleges that the bot never existed and that the Adam brothers used investor funds to fund their own lavish lifestyles, including the purchase of luxury cars and a multimillion-dollar condominium.
The SEC’s complaint accuses the Adam brothers of misrepresenting the risks and returns associated with their investment scheme and of failing to disclose the true nature of their operations. The agency is seeking to recover the ill-gotten gains from the brothers and to impose civil penalties on them.
