Crypto Fraud Kingpin Gets 8-Year Slammer for $40M Heist – Justice Served Cold

Crypto's latest villain meets his reckoning—behind bars.

The Scheme Unraveled

A mastermind who built his empire on empty promises and stolen dreams just got an 8-year timeout. The $40 million Ponzi collapsed faster than a shitcoin in a bear market.

How It Worked

Classic smoke-and-mirrors: flashy returns, fake audits, and the oldest trick in finance—taking money from Peter to pay Paul (until the music stopped).

The Fallout

Victims got liquidation instead of lambos—another reminder that if it looks too good to be true in crypto, it's probably someone's exit strategy.

The Irony

Eight years is longer than most crypto projects last anyway. Maybe he'll write a jailhouse memoir: 'How to Lose $40M and Influence Regulators.'

• Dwayne Golden and his team ran three Ponzi crypto companies that promised investors high returns but instead used new investors’ money to pay earlier ones.
• After the scheme collapsed, Golden and his accomplices tried to run away from federal investigations by destroying records and giving false statements to authorities.

A Crypto Ponzi scheme has led to the arrest and eight-year prison sentence for the mastermind behind the fraud. The scheme promised investors high returns from trading cryptocurrency but instead operated in a ‘circle’ formation, taking 

New deposits from old investors to pay earlier investors, keeping the operation running on false hope. As the scam unraveled, authorities stepped in, uncovering the full depth of the deception. 

The Mastermind Behind the Crypto Ponzi Scheme and How it Operated 

On Friday, the 27th of June, the Department of Justice (DOJ) recorded the trial of Dwayne Golden, the mastermind behind a $40 million Ponzi scheme. According to the details, Dwayne offered fake crypto investment opportunities to people. He and his team convinced people to invest over $40 million into what they believed was a crypto investment that would bring in steady profits.

However, the operation turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. They organized the operation in such a way that they used new investors funds to pay old investors profits, making them believe that the investments were real. After the scam fell apart, Golden and his two other partners, William White and Gregory Aggesen, tried to block multiple federal investigations. 

Between April and August 2017, Golden, Aggesen, and Marquis Demacking Egerton, also called “Mardy Eger,” ran several fake companies from EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin. 

Their strategy in business was always the same: they would first promise investors fixed returns from crypto investments, then lie to them that their profits came from trading done overseas, and when it was time to pay dividends, they made up stories that never existed. All three companies collapsed after collecting the funds.

From July 2017 to March 2022, Golden, Aggesen, and WHITE worked together to hide the truth from authorities. They tried to block the Federal Trade Commission and avoid a criminal grand jury investigation. To cover their tracks, they also destroyed records, and White (one of the accomplices) gave false statements to the FTC and a federal grand jury to protect Aggesen.