The chief trader of cryptocurrency pyramid EmpiresX, Joshua David Nicholas, has been sentenced to 4 years and 3 months in prison.

According to the US Department of Justice, from September 2020 to early 2022, Nicholas, along with accomplices, promoted a fraudulent investment platform. The defendant promised guaranteed profits through the use of a trading bot allegedly based on “artificial and human intelligence.”

The total damage from the activity of the pyramid exceeds $100 million.

All the funds received by the clients were laundered by the organizers of the scheme through an unnamed foreign crypto exchange. They actually only sent $1 million directly to the EmpiresX trading account, so the rest was reportedly laundered.