Amir Bruno Elmaani, 31, of Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia, United States is the founder of Oyster Pearl, a cryptocurrency that operates on the Ethereum platform. He is also known as Bruno Block.
Elmaani allegedly made millions of dollars from the sale of a new cryptocurrency but evaded reporting that income to the Internal Revenue Service. He allegedly filed a false tax return, operated his business and owning assets through pseudonyms and shell companies, obtained income through nominees and dealt in gold and cash.
In 2017, Elmaani started to promote online a new cryptocurrency called Pearl tokens. When he filed a 2017 tax return, he falsely stated that he had only around $15,000 of income from a patent design business.
In 2018, Elmaani filed no return and reported no income to the IRS. In the same year, he spent more than $10 million for the purchase of multiple yachts, $1.6 million at a carbon-fiber composite company, $700,000 for the purchase of two houses and hundreds of thousands of dollars at a home improvement store.
On December 9, 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil charges against Elmaani. In September 2021, the IRS charged him with two counts of tax evasion.
On April 5, 2023, Elmaani pleaded guilty to tax offenses. The tax loss to the U.S. from his conduct was around $5,523,794.
On October 31, 2023, Elmaani was sentenced to four years in prison and one year of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $5,523,794.
CONAN Daily 