CEO of ‘Textbook Ponzi’ Pleads Guilty in $200M Bitcoin Fraud Case

The Chief Executive of Praetorian Group International, Ramil Ventura Palafox, argued this week guilty in Virginia to introduce fraud and money laundering.

Palafox, 60, a double US and Filipino citizen, led the company as chairman, Chief Executive and Chief Promoter. He supervised a Bitcoin Ponzi schedule of $ 200 million of which prosecutors said rack from the Ministry of Justice.

The schedule promised the daily return from 0.5% to 3% via a Bitcoin trading program that never operated on a scale. Instead, funds from new participants were recycled to pay earlier investors or spent on personal luxury.

From December 2019 to October 2021, investors submitted at least $ 201 million, including more than $ 30 million in Fiat and more than 8,100 Bitcoin on $ 171 million.

Palafox also spent around $ 3 million on 20 luxury cars, more than $ 6 million in four houses in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, and hundreds of thousands of penthouse suites and designer energy from brands such as Rolex, Cartier and Gucci.

The online portal of PGI showed investors fraudulent account balance and fictional profit, which strengthens the appearance of safety. Public Prosecutors said that the platform was central to maintaining the illusion until the recordings were mounted and unraveled the scheme.

“Praetorian is a textbook Ponzi schedule MLM structure with promises of unrealistic return by” AI Bitcoin arbitration “, and payouts financed by new investors,” said Dadybayo, research and strategy strategy at Unstoppable Wallet, told Decrypt.

Here, Dadybayo refers to Multi-Level Marketing (MLM), a sales model where participants earn money, both by selling products or services and by recruiting new members in the scheme.

The Praetorian schedule “fits the same pattern as BitConnect, plus smoking and Onecoin,” he noticed.

But unlike largely on a larger scale, such as that of FTX and Mt. Gox, “will not leave the Praetorian business” not a permanent figure, “he said.” It can create more skepticism around the term “arbitration”, but for regulated players it is almost a marketing profit: they can point to their compliance expenditures as a security. “

Such diagrams continue to come up “because greed is universal and regulators do not have the means to chase everyone,” he added.

Palafox is planned for conviction on 3 February 2026 and is confronted with a maximum of 40 years in prison. He has agreed to the refund of $ 62.7 million, although the actual penalties are generally less than the legal maximum.

“The lesson for supervisors is that the real problem is fraudulent behavior, not the underlying technology,” said Dadybayo. “Instead of increasing KYC/AML, a better approach to financial literacy, red-flag awareness and stronger international coordination is.”