{"id":59282,"date":"2025-07-28T19:38:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T02:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=59282"},"modified":"2025-07-28T21:36:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T04:36:43","slug":"arizona-man-pleads-guilty-in-13-million-crypto-ponzi-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=59282","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Man Pleads Guilty in $13 Million Crypto Ponzi Scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"64\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><strong data-start=\"66\" data-end=\"81\">LOS ANGELES<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"64\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1530 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-90x60.jpg 90w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-180x120.jpg 180w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS-95x64.jpg 95w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/IRS.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr., 54, of Arizona, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his role in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, officials announced Monday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"0\" data-end=\"64\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">The scam defrauded investors of more than $13 million.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"298\" data-end=\"585\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Operating under aliases like \u201cVincent Midnight,\u201d \u201cDelta Prime,\u201d and \u201cDirector Vinchenzo,\u201d Mazzotta promised high-yield returns through AI-powered crypto trading bots. Alongside co-defendant David Saffron, he lured victims into investing in fake companies, such as Mind Capital and Cloud9Capital.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" title=\"\" data-start=\"587\" data-end=\"789\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-39979 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/judge-gavel-300x160.jpg\" alt=\"West Virginia Woman Took Top Secrets, Committed Kidnapping\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" \/>To further exploit victims, Mazzotta and Saffron created a sham government agency\u2014the \u201cFederal Crypto Reserve\u201d\u2014and charged investors additional fees for bogus investigations into the disappearing firms, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"791\" data-end=\"939\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">After Saffron\u2019s arrest, Mazzotta helped destroy evidence, including an iPad and personal records, and falsified business documents to hide his role.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"941\" data-end=\"1047\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Mazzotta faces up to 15 years in prison when sentenced Dec. 15.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"1049\" data-end=\"1206\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">Federal prosecutors warned investors to be wary of crypto scams masked in tech jargon and fake legitimacy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"1049\" data-end=\"1206\" data-is-last-node=\"\" data-is-only-node=\"\"><span style=\"font-size: 20px;\">The IRS Criminal Investigation unit led the probe.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LOS ANGELES Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr., 54, of Arizona, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his role in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, officials announced Monday. The scam&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Arizona Man Pleads Guilty in $13 Million Crypto Ponzi Scheme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"LOS ANGELES Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr., 54, of Arizona, pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice for his role in a American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=59282\" \/>\n<meta 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