According to CryptoPotato, a New York court and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have indicted Idin Dalpour, a 39-year-old New York resident, for allegedly organizing a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of $43 million. The indictment states that Dalpour ran the scheme from 2020 through April 2024, targeting investors in the United States and abroad through an entity he controlled, known as 'Entity-1'. This entity was involved in a cryptocurrency trading operation and a Las Vegas hospitality enterprise.
Dalpour is accused of falsely claiming to purchase cryptocurrency at wholesale prices and sell it at a profit to retail investors, promising substantial returns with assurances of safety and insurance for their investments. He also claimed that Entity-1 had deals with a management company and a top Las Vegas hotel to rent condos to visitors. Investors were enticed with promises of substantial returns, with initial rates advertised at 42% per year. Dalpour allegedly provided investors with fabricated contracts, email correspondence, and bank statements to support his false claims about the profitability and legitimacy of the ventures.
The indictment alleges that Dalpour did not use investors’ funds as promised. Instead, he used the money contributed by later investors to pay earlier participants their returns. Dalpour also reportedly used investor funds for personal expenses, including gambling losses totaling approximately $1.7 million, expenditures from Art Direct amounting to over $400,000, and private school tuition for his children. When investors sought to recover their investments, he reportedly provided false explanations, including claims of frozen funds due to a hack of the Hotel’s servers and non-existent bank accounts.
In November 2023, Dalpour reportedly confessed to lying about the operation of the Las Vegas hospitality business, the misuse of investor funds, and the fabrication of contracts and bank records. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud. The Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force of the Southern District of New York is handling the case. Dalpour will appear in Manhattan federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Moses.
