{"id":31958,"date":"2020-11-18T14:14:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T12:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=31958"},"modified":"2025-08-28T06:19:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T03:19:02","slug":"us-arrests-organizer-of-35m-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/us-arrests-organizer-of-35m-ponzi-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"US arrests organizer of $35m Ponzi scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The defendant in organizing a large Ponzi scheme, founder of Family Wealth Legacy and Zolla, Matthew Pirsi, was detained by FBI agents, <a href=\\\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edca\/pr\/shasta-county-and-butte-county-residents-charged-35m-ponzi-scheme\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\\\">\u0433\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0442\u0441\u044f<\/a> in a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The arrest was made in California after Pirsi attempted to flee from law enforcement. For about an hour, FBI agents pursued the suspect, but he slipped into a specialized underwater towcraft on Lake Shasta. He was detained after emerging on the shore.<\/p>\n<p>The United States Attorney&#8217;s Office for the Southern District of California charged Pirsi with fraud, money laundering and making false statements.<\/p>\n<p>According to investigators, he organized a Ponzi scheme that attracted about $35 million. The companies raised these funds through &#8216;investment products&#8217;, including cryptocurrency mining.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Pirsi used Family Wealth Legacy and Zolla to attract funds, using various false and misleading statements, including about trading algorithms, the success of the companies&#8217; investment strategies, and the liquidity of investments,&#8221; the statement said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to authorities, Pirsi&#8217;s funds were spent on personal expenses: at least $2.5 million he used for renovating two houses and paying credit card bills. His accomplice Kenneth Winton allegedly bought a $1 million houseboat.<\/p>\n<p>If Pirsi is convicted on each of the charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison and total fines of $1 million. Winton could face up to 20 years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in November, a U.S. court <a href=\"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/news\/former-microsoft-software-engineer-sentenced-to-prison-for-bitcoin-fraud\">sentenced<\/a> former Microsoft employee Vladimir Kvashuk to nine years in prison for theft, money laundering and tax fraud involving Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>Follow ForkLog news on <a href=\\\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ForkLog\\\" target=\\\"_blank\\\" rel=\\\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\\\">Twitter<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Pirsi, founder of Family Wealth Legacy and Zolla, accused of organizing a large Ponzi scheme, was detained by FBI agents, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1154,1163,26],"class_list":["post-31958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-crimes","tag-ponzi-schemes","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"10","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31958"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31960,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31958\/revisions\/31960"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}