David Carmona, the founder of iComTech, has been detained in the United States.
Carmona’s arrest comes after a Grand Jury indictment in the Southern District of New York.
iComTech promoters Marco Ruiz Ochoa, Moses Valdez, Juan Arellano, David Brend, and Gustavo Rodriguez have all been accused and detained, in addition to Carmona.
In October 2018, BehindMLM reviewed iComTech. iComTech was an MLM cryptocurrency Ponzi scam that promised daily profits of up to 2.8%.
iComTech was largely targeted at Spanish-speaking populations in the United States and Latin America.
We couldn’t figure out who was operating iComTech at the time of publishing. The Ponzi scam imploded around the middle to late of 2019.
The bitcoin mining and trading tropes used as iComTech’s Ponzi marketing ruses.
According to Carmona’s indictment;
IcomTech was a deceptive Ponzi scam.
CARMONA and the other Promoters of IcomTech were not trading or mining cryptocurrencies.
Instead, among other IcomTech Promoters, CARMONA, OCHOA, VALDEZ, ARELLANO, and BREND utilized Victim monies to compensate other Victims, promote the Scheme to more Victims, and for personal expenses.
The closest iComeTech ever came to producing mining income was a hardware arrangement for marketing purposes.
The defendants, DAVID CARMONA and MARCO RUIZ OCHOA, entered into a contract on behalf of IcomTech in September 2018 to buy cryptocurrency mining equipment from a reputable supplier of such equipment (the “Mining Equipment Supplier”).
Following the signing of the deal, CARMONA, OCHOA, and other IcomTech Promoters began advertising IcomTech’s alleged investment in such hardware purchased from the Mining Equipment Supplier as a method of building interest in the Scheme among Victims.
In truth, IcomTech failed to satisfy its payments to the Mining Equipment Supplier and never got any bitcoin mining gear.
Despite the fact that representatives of the Mining Equipment Supplier threatened CARMONA and OCHOA with legal action, CARMONA and OCHOA continued to publicize IcomTech’s alleged investment with the Mining Equipment Supplier.
For example, in or around January 2019, OCHOA emailed CARMONA a communication from a Mining Equipment Supplier representative accusing OCHOA of utilizing the Mining Equipment Supplier’s “brand for legitimacy in marketing to recruit.”
Carmona openly informed Gustavo Rodriguez in one text exchange seized by the DOJ that
Negotiations with the Mining Equipment Supplier were only for show, and he was “using them.”
In response, RODRIGUEZ cautioned CARMONA that this would only work for a limited period until the Mining Equipment Supplier discovered it, but CARMONA might earn millions of dollars in the interim.
As iComTech began to fail in mid-2019, the business blamed withdrawal delays on “technical issues, claimed hackers, and other accidents.”
iComTech finally launched a shitcoin exit scheme.
In or around summer 2019, as more and more Victims began to complain about being unable to withdraw their purported earnings from the Online Portal, which were denoted in Bitcoin, IcomTech’s Promoters, including the defendants DAVID CARMONA, MOSES VALDEZ, JUAN ARELLANO, and DAVID BREND, informed Victims, in substance and in part, that IcomTech would no longer credit Victims’ accounts with Bitcoin, but with a
Victims were encouraged to assume by IcomTech’s promoters that Icoms, which IcomTech first offered for sale for a few cents, might eventually reach a value of $1 or more if they became available on major cryptocurrency exchanges and accepted by businesses as payment for products and services.
In actuality, Icoms were practically worthless, peaking at around $0.01 on external markets in the fall of 2019 and decreasing to a fraction of a penny thereafter.
Naturally, the failure of iComTech caused difficulties for the Ponzi scheme’s sponsors.
During an iComTech conference call, an investor approached David Brend, and Brend “admitted, in substance and in part, that he knew IcomTech was a hoax.”
Juan Arellano will retire in October 2019.
DAVID CARMONA… received an audio recording via text message expressing fears, in essence and in part, of being called before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission because he (ARELLANO) and CARMONA were messing with other people’s money.
According to the DOJ, by the end of 2019;
IcomTech had stopped paying Victims, and its main promoters, including the defendants DAVID CARMONA, MARCO RUIZ OCHOA, MOSES VALDEZ, JUAN ARELLANO, and DAVID BREND, had stopped marketing the Scheme and, in certain cases, stopped replying to Victims entirely.
The majority of victims lost their whole investment.
The defendants are each charged with one count of wire fraud in the iComTech joint indictment.
On October 13th, 2022, the indictment was submitted under secrecy.
On October 21st, a secret document was submitted, which I believe relates to the arrests of David Carmona and Gustavo Rodriguez.
My rationale is that no court entry has been made for Carmona’s or Rodriguez’s arrest, and the indictment was unsealed on November 8th (there are no filings between the Oct 21st sealed filing and order to unseal).
On November 8th, David Brend was detained in Florida.
On November 8th, Juan Arellano was detained in California.
On November 8th, Marco Ruiz Ochoa was detained in New Hampshire.
On November 8th, Moses Valdez was detained (not sure where)
Carmona appeared in court for the first time on November 9th, when he pled not guilty but agreed to be detained.
Gustavo Rodriguez is due to appear in court on December 1st.
Valdez and Brend made their first public appearances on November 14th. Brend and Valdez both entered not guilty pleas.
Brend’s bond was set at $400,000. Valdez’s bond was set at $100,000. Valdez and Brend are also subject to travel and travel document limitations.
prohibited from participating in any MLM offer; prohibited from participating in any investment opportunity; prohibited from using more than one cryptocurrency wallet; forced to declare all existing owned cryptocurrency wallets to Pre-trial Services
A pre-trial meeting was place on November 16th.
The DOJ has been directed to conduct product discovery in the matter by December 16th. On February 7th, 2023, a second pre-trial conference has been planned.
Meanwhile, Brend, Arellano, and Valdez are free on bail. Carmona will stay in custody. Rodriguez, as previously mentioned, is awaiting arraignment.
I’m not sure what Ochoa’s (right) present situation is. According to his New Hampshire docket, I think he is still in temporary jail for arraignment.
The iComTech indictment demands that the defendants surrender all ill-gotten earnings.
It should be emphasized that David Carmona appears to have continued to defraud customers up until his arrest.
Although I was unable to directly confirm, a BehindMLM reader linked Carmona to PayMoney in April 2022.
PayMoney, like iComTech, was an MLM crypto Ponzi offering a 200% ROI. PayMoney has already gone bankrupt.
It’s unknown how many additional Ponzi schemes Carmona has been involved in. Also unclear is whether he is/was still working with his indicted iComTech associates.
The iComTech criminal case has been added to BehindMLM’s schedule. Stay tuned for more information as we continue to investigate the matter.
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David Carmona, the founder of iComTech, has been detained in the United States.
Carmona’s arrest comes after a Grand Jury indictment in the Southern District of New York.
iComTech promoters Marco Ruiz Ochoa, Moses Valdez, Juan Arellano, David Brend, and Gustavo Rodriguez have all been accused and detained, in addition to Carmona.
In October 2018, BehindMLM reviewed iComTech. iComTech was an MLM cryptocurrency Ponzi scam that promised daily profits of up to 2.8%.
iComTech was largely targeted at Spanish-speaking populations in the United States and Latin America.
We couldn’t figure out who was operating iComTech at the time of publishing. The Ponzi scam imploded around the middle to late of 2019.
The bitcoin mining and trading tropes used as iComTech’s Ponzi marketing ruses.
According to Carmona’s indictment;
IcomTech was a deceptive Ponzi scam.
CARMONA and the other Promoters of IcomTech were not trading or mining cryptocurrencies.
Instead, among other IcomTech Promoters, CARMONA, OCHOA, VALDEZ, ARELLANO, and BREND utilized Victim monies to compensate other Victims, promote the Scheme to more Victims, and for personal expenses.
The closest iComeTech ever came to producing mining income was a hardware arrangement for marketing purposes.
The defendants, DAVID CARMONA and MARCO RUIZ OCHOA, entered into a contract on behalf of IcomTech in September 2018 to buy cryptocurrency mining equipment from a reputable supplier of such equipment (the “Mining Equipment Supplier”).
Following the signing of the deal, CARMONA, OCHOA, and other IcomTech Promoters began advertising IcomTech’s alleged investment in such hardware purchased from the Mining Equipment Supplier as a method of building interest in the Scheme among Victims.
In truth, IcomTech failed to satisfy its payments to the Mining Equipment Supplier and never got any bitcoin mining gear.
Despite the fact that representatives of the Mining Equipment Supplier threatened CARMONA and OCHOA with legal action, CARMONA and OCHOA continued to publicize IcomTech’s alleged investment with the Mining Equipment Supplier.
For example, in or around January 2019, OCHOA emailed CARMONA a communication from a Mining Equipment Supplier representative accusing OCHOA of utilizing the Mining Equipment Supplier’s “brand for legitimacy in marketing to recruit.”
Carmona openly informed Gustavo Rodriguez in one text exchange seized by the DOJ that
Negotiations with the Mining Equipment Supplier were only for show, and he was “using them.”
In response, RODRIGUEZ cautioned CARMONA that this would only work for a limited period until the Mining Equipment Supplier discovered it, but CARMONA might earn millions of dollars in the interim.
As iComTech began to fail in mid-2019, the business blamed withdrawal delays on “technical issues, claimed hackers, and other accidents.”
iComTech finally launched a shitcoin exit scheme.
In or around summer 2019, as more and more Victims began to complain about being unable to withdraw their purported earnings from the Online Portal, which were denoted in Bitcoin, IcomTech’s Promoters, including the defendants DAVID CARMONA, MOSES VALDEZ, JUAN ARELLANO, and DAVID BREND, informed Victims, in substance and in part, that IcomTech would no longer credit Victims’ accounts with Bitcoin, but with a
Victims were encouraged to assume by IcomTech’s promoters that Icoms, which IcomTech first offered for sale for a few cents, might eventually reach a value of $1 or more if they became available on major cryptocurrency exchanges and accepted by businesses as payment for products and services.
In actuality, Icoms were practically worthless, peaking at around $0.01 on external markets in the fall of 2019 and decreasing to a fraction of a penny thereafter.
Naturally, the failure of iComTech caused difficulties for the Ponzi scheme’s sponsors.
During an iComTech conference call, an investor approached David Brend, and Brend “admitted, in substance and in part, that he knew IcomTech was a hoax.”
Juan Arellano will retire in October 2019.
DAVID CARMONA… received an audio recording via text message expressing fears, in essence and in part, of being called before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission because he (ARELLANO) and CARMONA were messing with other people’s money.
According to the DOJ, by the end of 2019;
IcomTech had stopped paying Victims, and its main promoters, including the defendants DAVID CARMONA, MARCO RUIZ OCHOA, MOSES VALDEZ, JUAN ARELLANO, and DAVID BREND, had stopped marketing the Scheme and, in certain cases, stopped replying to Victims entirely.
The majority of victims lost their whole investment.
The defendants are each charged with one count of wire fraud in the iComTech joint indictment.
On October 13th, 2022, the indictment was submitted under secrecy.
On October 21st, a secret document was submitted, which I believe relates to the arrests of David Carmona and Gustavo Rodriguez.
My rationale is that no court entry has been made for Carmona’s or Rodriguez’s arrest, and the indictment was unsealed on November 8th (there are no filings between the Oct 21st sealed filing and order to unseal).
On November 8th, David Brend was detained in Florida.
On November 8th, Juan Arellano was detained in California.
On November 8th, Marco Ruiz Ochoa was detained in New Hampshire.
On November 8th, Moses Valdez was detained (not sure where)
Carmona appeared in court for the first time on November 9th, when he pled not guilty but agreed to be detained.
Gustavo Rodriguez is due to appear in court on December 1st.
Valdez and Brend made their first public appearances on November 14th. Brend and Valdez both entered not guilty pleas.
Brend’s bond was set at $400,000. Valdez’s bond was set at $100,000. Valdez and Brend are also subject to travel and travel document limitations.
prohibited from participating in any MLM offer; prohibited from participating in any investment opportunity; prohibited from using more than one cryptocurrency wallet; forced to declare all existing owned cryptocurrency wallets to Pre-trial Services
A pre-trial meeting was place on November 16th.
The DOJ has been directed to conduct product discovery in the matter by December 16th. On February 7th, 2023, a second pre-trial conference has been planned.
Meanwhile, Brend, Arellano, and Valdez are free on bail. Carmona will stay in custody. Rodriguez, as previously mentioned, is awaiting arraignment.
I’m not sure what Ochoa’s (right) present situation is. According to his New Hampshire docket, I think he is still in temporary jail for arraignment.
The iComTech indictment demands that the defendants surrender all ill-gotten earnings.
It should be emphasized that David Carmona appears to have continued to defraud customers up until his arrest.
Although I was unable to directly confirm, a BehindMLM reader linked Carmona to PayMoney in April 2022.
PayMoney, like iComTech, was an MLM crypto Ponzi offering a 200% ROI. PayMoney has already gone bankrupt.
It’s unknown how many additional Ponzi schemes Carmona has been involved in. Also unclear is whether he is/was still working with his indicted iComTech associates.
The iComTech criminal case has been added to BehindMLM’s schedule. Stay tuned for more information as we continue to investigate the matter.