Crypto cheater gambles away $1.5 million in casinos in Las Vegas

Within only 18 months, two men from the US state of Arizona with a pyramid system are said to have captured more than USD 7.5 million from partly prominent investors.

The money was invested in a luxurious lifestyle and in Las Vegas: One of them gambled away around USD 1.5 million in the casinos of the gambling metropolis. Now the District Court of Arizona has brought charges.

5,000 USD stake per game

Within 13 months, the defendant John C. is said to have gambled away exactly 1,455,115 USD together with his girlfriend in the MGM casinos in Las Vegas. According to the court file of the District Court of Arizona, this is documented by records of the gambling operator, among others:

According to MGM Grand (which owns several hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, including the Aria Casino), C and AH were found to have lost a total of $1,455,155 in the MGM properties between August 12th, 2018 and December 21st, 2019. Their average bet at the gaming table was USD 5,000.

The 28-year-old had spent a total of 134 hours, corresponding to around five and a half full days, at the tables of the MGM casinos.

King of the crypto trade?

The money the man, who goes by the stage name “Kryp+0 K!ng”, lost came from his company Zima Digital Assets. He founded this company in 2017 together with Zach S.

The company promised investors high dividends through investments in the crypto and blockchain sector. According to local media, the client base also included several former Major Baseball League players not mentioned by name.

The so-called Ponzi scheme is a form of the illegal pyramid system.

In this system, investors are tricked into believing that they can achieve a mostly unrealistically high dividend with certain investments. However, any payouts are generated exclusively from the deposits of new investors.

In most cases, this condemns the system to rapid failure. Only the initiators of the fraud make profits in the long term.

It is unclear exactly how John C., who called himself the “Michael Jordan of algorithmic cryptocurrency trading”, got his more than 90 victims to entrust him with a total of around USD 7.5 million.

What is certain is that the only investment Zima Digital Assets made was in the luxury life of its founders. This came to an end with the arrest of the two on January 30th, 2023.

The accused are currently in custody and remain silent about the charges. A trial date has not yet been set.