David Gilbert Saffron, 51, is a citizen of Australia currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. He and Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr., 52, of Los Angeles, California, USA are accused of operating a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that defrauded victims of more than $25 million.
To execute the scheme, Saffron and Mazzotta allegedly created the Federal Crypto Reserve, a fictitious entity. They allegedly induced the victims to invest in various trading programs that falsely promised to employ an artificial intelligence automated trading bot to trade the investments of the victims in cryptocurrency markets and earn high-yield profits.
Saffron and Mazzotta allegedly promoted the investment programs under Bitcoin Wealth Management, Circle Society, Cloud9Capital, Mind Capital, Omicron Trust and several other names. Instead of investing the victims’ funds in cryptocurrency, the duo allegedly misappropriated the funds to pay for personal expenses including a personal chef, luxury hotel accommodations, private security guards, private chartered jet flights and private mansion rentals.
After inducing the victims to invest in one of the cryptocurrency investment programs, Saffron and Mazzotta allegedly fraudulently solicited the victims to pay the Federal Crypto Reserve to investigate and recover the victims’ losses.
The Australian man allegedly concealed his identity by soliciting the victims under various aliases, including Dave Gabe and David Gilbert, and various online personas, including Bitcoin Yoda and the Blue Wizard. He and is Californian co-conspirator allegedly conspired to obstruct official proceedings by concealing assets, concealing or destroying evidence and falsifying records and to conceal the source and location of the victims’ cryptocurrency investments via blockchain hopping and through mixers and tumblers, which are services designed to prevent cryptocurrency tracing.
On December 11, 2023, a superseding indictment was unsealed, charged Saffron and Mazzota with money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation is investigating the case.
CONAN Daily 