Mining Capital Coin CEO Indicted in $62M Crypto Fraud Scheme

Mining Capital Coin CEO and founder Luiz Capuci Jr. was indicted for allegedly masterminding a $62 million global investment fraud scheme through his purported cryptocurrency mining and investment platform, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday (May 6).

“Cryptocurrency-based fraud undermines financial markets worldwide as bad actors defraud investors and limits the ability of legitimate entrepreneurs to innovate within this emerging space,” Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in the DOJ press release.

“The department is committed to following the money — whether physical or digital — to expose criminal schemes, hold these fraudsters accountable, and protect investors,” he said.

Capuci Jr., 44, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, “misled investors about MCC’s cryptocurrency mining and investment program, under which investors could invest in MCC by purchasing Mining Packages,” according to the indictment.

Capuci and his co-conspirators “touted MCC’s purported international network of cryptocurrency mining machines as being able to generate substantial profits and guaranteed returns by using investors’ money to mine new cryptocurrency,” according to the DOJ press release.

Capuci also promoted MCC’s cryptocurrency, Capital Coin, as a decentralized autonomous organization that was “stabilized by revenue from the biggest cryptocurrency mining operation in the world,” but Capuci diverted investors’ money to cryptocurrency wallets under his control.

He also allegedly fraudulently marketed MCC’s purported Trading Bots as an additional investment mechanism for investors to invest in the cryptocurrency market and recruited promoters and affiliates to promote MCC and its various investment programs through a pyramid scheme, the release says.

Related: Crypto’s Furtive Past on Display With Guilty Plea in $750M Shadow Banking Case

In April, the DOJ announced that Reginald Fowler, a former co-owner of the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings, had been charged with facilitating the fraudulent processing of $750 million from several cryptocurrency exchanges beginning as early as 2013 through 2019, when U.S. banks had cut off the industry.

He faces 90 years in jail after pleading guilty to bank fraud, bank fraud conspiracy and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.