ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Convicted for defrauding at least 90,000 investors around the world of more than $200 million, a multi-level marketing CEO was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in an Alexandria courthouse on Thursday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Ramil Ventura Palafox, 61, through his company Praetorian Group International, lied to its investors about bitcoin options, promising an up to 3% rate of daily return on investment if they gave him their money. In reality, Palafox had been conducting a Ponzi scheme — paying the investors back with their own money or money from other investors.
The scheme was carried out between December 2019 and October 2021, during which time Palafox ended up accumulating $201 million of investors’ money, of which investors lost a combined $62 million. Palafox even created a website that signaled to clients that their investments were increasing in value…