Magdaleno Mendoza, a senior promoter for the cryptocurrency investment scam IcomTech, was given a 71-month sentence for helping run a scheme that took millions of dollars from mostly Spanish-speaking, working-class investors.
According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, IcomTech started in mid-2018 and folded by the end of 2019. The company claimed it earned profits through cryptocurrency trading and mining.
Promoters also kept large sums for personal expenses, while investors were shown fake profits in online accounts they could not actually access.
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Mendoza played a leading role in recruiting new participants. He kept regular contact with IcomTech’s founder, David Carmona, and had previously taken part in two other crypto frauds.
Prosecutors said Mendoza used his Los Angeles-area restaurant to host events where he encouraged people to invest. Promoters often traveled to different cities, appearing at flashy expos and arriving in expensive cars to impress potential investors.
When people began requesting withdrawals around August 2018, the company delayed payments, added unexpected charges, and made excuses.
To calm investors, IcomTech created its own digital token called “Icoms”. The token had no actual value, and investors lost even more as a result.
Along with the prison term, Mendoza was ordered to repay $789,218.94 in restitution and to forfeit $1.5 million, including his home in Downey, California, which was purchased with the scheme’s proceeds.
Recently, Federal authorities in Michigan, working with international law enforcement, took down a cryptocurrency exchange called E-Note. How did the case unfold? Read the full story.
