The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged brothers Jonathan and Tanner Adam with orchestrating a $60 million Ponzi scheme involving a fraudulent crypto trading platform, the regulator announced Monday. The scheme allegedly defrauded more than 80 investors between January 2023 and June 2024.
According to the SEC complaint, the Adams lured investors with promises of returns as high as 13.5% per month. They claimed that Jonathan Adam had developed an automated trading “bot” capable of identifying profitable arbitrage opportunities on a crypto asset platform. The SEC says these claims were entirely fabricated.
The commission has also secured emergency asset freezes against the brothers and their companies, GCZ Global LLC and Triten Financial Group LLC. The funds were allegedly diverted for personal luxuries, including a $30 million condominium in Miami for Tanner Adam and recreational vehicles purchased by Jonathan Adam using $480,000 of investor funds. The complaint further reveals that Jonathan failed to disclose his previous convictions on three counts of securities fraud.
The SEC is pursuing permanent injunctions, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against the brothers. This case underscores the agency’s continued crackdown on fraudulent crypto schemes, highlighting the risks investors face in the rapidly evolving digital asset space.
