The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained a final judgment against a head trader at “EmpiresX,” which the agency charged with a fake trading scheme.
According to the SEC’s complaint, filed June 30, 2022, Joshua David Nicholas was the head trader of a purported hedge fund known as EmpiresX that was operated by co-defendants Emerson Sousa Pires and Flavio Mendes Goncalves. Since at least late 2020, EmpiresX sold investments touting daily profits of one percent earned by a trading “bot” or Nicholas’ manual trading. The complaint alleges that, in reality, the bot was fake, Nicholas’ trading resulted in significant losses, and the defendants only transferred a small portion of investors’ funds to EmpiresX’s brokerage account. Instead, the defendants allegedly misappropriated large sums of investors’ money to lease a Lamborghini, shop at Tiffany & Co., make a payment on a second home, and more.
Source: SEC Obtains Final Judgment Against Head Trader Charged in Fake Trading Scheme
