Brooklyn Man Gets 8 Years in $40M Crypto Ponzi Scheme
Dwayne Golden, a 57-year-old from Brooklyn, is heading to prison for nearly eight years after admitting to his part in a cryptocurrency scam that cheated investors out of more than $40 million. The sentence was handed down this week in federal court, closing one chapter in a case that’s been dragging on for years.
Golden wasn’t working alone. He and three others—Gregory Aggesen, Marquis Egerton (who sometimes went by “Mardy Eger”), and William White—ran three shady crypto outfits: EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin. They told people their money would be put into overseas trading with guaranteed returns. Turns out, none of that was true.
How the Scheme Fell Apart
The whole thing lasted just a few months in 2017 before the platforms vanished, along with the cash. Investors got nothing. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Golden and his crew tried to cover their tracks when investigators came knocking. They destroyed records, lied to authorities, and even sent fake responses to subpoenas.
White, one of the co-defendants, already got 30 months behind bars. Aggesen and Egerton are still waiting to learn their fate. Golden, meanwhile, has to cough up $2.46 million upfront, with more restitution likely coming later.
It’s not clear how much victims will actually get back, but the FBI is asking them to file claims. Don’t hold your breath, though—these things tend to move slowly.
A Busy Month for Crypto Crackdowns
This sentencing is just one in a string of recent crypto-related cases. Earlier in June, the DOJ went after $225 million tied to “pig butchering” scams—those cruel cons where people are sweet-talked into pouring money into fake investments. Then there was the $7.7 million seizure linked to North Korean hackers. And let’s not forget the Russian crypto payments founder charged with laundering half a billion dollars.
Authorities aren’t playing around anymore. The FBI and DOJ keep saying they’re ramping up efforts to track stolen crypto and shut down these operations, especially with scams getting more sophisticated. Whether that actually stops the next big fraud is another question.
For now, Golden’s case serves as a reminder—if something promises crazy returns with no risk, it’s probably too good to be true. And if the people behind it start shredding documents when the feds show up? Yeah, that’s a bad sign.
