US Man Charged Over $25M Diamond Ponzi Scheme That Touted a Crypto Token

A man from Washington, D.C., has been charged with running a diamond investment scam with its own cryptocurrency to fund a life of luxury.

Federal prosecutors in South Florida charged the man, Jose Angel Aman, with wire fraud on Friday.

Allegations include that Aman and his partners had solicited investors in the U.S. and Canada for a diamond investment scheme, saying he would buy rough-colored diamonds and cut, polish and resell them for profit.

Promoting the investment as high return and no risk, Aman said the scheme was backed by a $25 million inventory of diamonds, according to the allegations.

The prosecutors claim Aman "Rarely" used investments to buy rough diamonds and never refined and resold them; the $25 million inventory was also an alleged falsehood.

Aman instead made supposed interest payments to earlier investors using newer investors' money and persuaded investors to roll over their investments by falsely claiming their investments were at full value.

Again, money from later investors was allegedly used to play "Interest" to earlier investors.

The schemes fleeced "Hundreds" of investors for over $25 million, according to the charges, while Aman allegedly used some of the funds to "Support his own lavish lifestyle."

Aman made his initial court appearance in West Palm Beach, Fla., last week.

Back in May, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission moved to halt the operations of Aman, Argyle coin and other entities he operated over similar allegations.