- A huge crypto mining scam has been shuttered after its founders were indicted for fraud
- MCC International took over $11 million from investors, which founders used to buy cars and yachts
- MCC International launched in late 2017
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged the founders of MCC International Corp with fraud after they used investors’ money to fund their lavish lifestyles. In a tale as old as time, in the crypto world at least, Luiz Carlos Capuci, Jr. and Emerson Souza Pires used MCC International, which traded as Mining Capital Coin Corp., to elicit at least $8.1 million from the sale of crypto mining packages and $3.2 million in initiation fees, all the while promising investors daily returns of 1 percent, paid weekly, for a period of up to 52 weeks.
65,535 Investors Hoodwinked
Capuci and Pires started MCC International in late 2017 at the height of the bull run, making the most of the crypto hype to sell fake mining packages to 65,535 investors. As well as mining, MCC International allegedly claimed that the weekly profits were also a result of “profit sharing” through trading stocks, foreign exchange, and cryptocurrencies.
In its early days, MCC International promised returns in bitcoin, but defendants claim that in later years this option was replaced by the project’s own token, Capital Coin (CPTL), with investors asked to redeem their CPTL on Bitchain, a fake crypto asset trading platform created and managed by Capuci. Inevitably, investors faced withdrawal problems from Bitchain that led to the necessity to either buy more mining packages or forfeit their investments.
MCC International Founders Bought Lambos and Yachts
The SEC alleges that Capuci and Pires earned themselves over $11 million from the enterprise, which they used to buy Lamborghinis, yachts, and real estate. On April 21, 2022, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a temporary restraining order against the defendants and an order freezing their assets.
