“MCC was a Potemkin village for the digital age. There was no mining for cryptocurrency. No trading robots. No trading. MCC might have created its own crypto asset, but it had no real value. MCC had one, and only one, source of revenues: Its unsuspecting investors,” according to the SEC in the complaint.
MCC, Capuci, and Pires profited at least $8.1 million from selling cryptocurrency mining packages to investors. They also made generated $3.2 million in initiation fees from investors.
The SEC obtained a temporary restraining order against the defendants and an order freezing their assets.
In a statement, SEC Enforcement Division, Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit Chief A. Kristina Littman said, “As the complaint alleges, Capuci and Pires took every opportunity to extract more money from unsuspecting investors on false promises of outlandish returns and used investor funds raised from this fraudulent scheme to fund a lavish lifestyle…The restraining order and asset freeze helps preserve investor assets and puts a stop to the defendants’ alleged ongoing fraudulent enterprise.”
