US charges Oyster Protocol founder with multimillion-dollar tax evasion

U.S. authorities charged Amir Bruno Elmāni, the founder of the now-defunct Oyster Protocol cryptocurrency project, known as Bruno Block, with multimillion-dollar tax evasion, сообщило the Department of Justice said.

In the indictment filed in court jointly by prosecutors, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), it states that Elmāni earned “millions of dollars” in 2017 through the Pearl (PRL) token ICO and subsequent cryptocurrency manipulations.

According to investigators, that year he filed a falsified tax return, reporting income of $15 000. In 2018 he did not file it at all, spending more than $10 million on the purchase of several yachts, $1.6 million on a composites manufacturing company, more than $700 000 on the purchase of two houses and “several hundred thousand dollars” at a home goods store.

Elmāni concealed his real name from Oyster Protocol staff and business partners, calling himself Bruno Block, and never met them in person. The blockchain project promised website owners revenue for storing files.

In June 2018 Elmāni said that he owned “millions of Pearl tokens” as a founder’s stake and allegedly transferred them to another wallet to avoid double taxation. In October he issued an additional supply of PRL and sold it on an exchange, sending the asset’s price plunging.

“It is alleged that Amir Bruno Elmāni intended to create a high-tech method of financing a high-tech business, but the main scheme consisted of old-fashioned fraud and tax evasion. Elmāni allegedly earned millions by attracting money from investors through his own cryptocurrency, increasing apparently fixed token supply and converting them into other digital currencies, as well as not reporting or paying taxes on any income,” said Audrey Strauss, Acting U.S. Attorney for Manhattan.

To obtain proceeds from selling cryptocurrency and transferring funds to his bank accounts, Elmāni used friends and relatives. He also traded precious metals, stored gold bars in a safe on a yacht, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash for personal consumption, the indictment said.

“With a minimal reported income in 2018, he nevertheless managed to spend more than $10 million on yachts, but after today’s arrest he will not be going anywhere anytime soon,” said FBI Deputy Director William Sweeney.

The 28-year-old Elmāni is charged on two counts, each carrying up to five years in prison.

Earlier, a U.S. court sentenced the founder of the Argyle Coin cryptocurrency project Jose Angel Aman to seven years in prison for organizing a $25 million Ponzi scheme.

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