Fort Lauderdale, FL – June 30, 2022 – Emerson Pires, a Brazilian citizen formerly residing in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, along with co-defendants Flavio Goncalves, Joshua Nicholas of Stuart, Florida, and Empires Consulting Corp., are facing charges of fraud following a civil enforcement action filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The defendants allegedly fraudulently solicited over $41.6 million, including $14.3 million from U.S. residents, through a commodity interest pool operating under the name EmpiresX.
The CFTC complaint alleges that Pires, Goncalves, and Empires Consulting misappropriated at least $5 million of the funds contributed by EmpiresX pool participants. The scheme, initiated around September 2020, lured investors through the EmpiresX website and social media videos promising “financial independence” and daily profits from trading in futures, options, stocks, and cryptocurrency.
According to the complaint, the defendants knowingly made false claims regarding investment performance, pool size, and participant returns. They allegedly displayed fabricated screenshots purporting to show a profitable EmpiresX account on a major electronic trading platform – an account that, in fact, did not exist. A fake website was allegedly created to further mislead participants into believing their funds were actively being traded.
While only $1 million of participant funds was directed to a futures trading account under the name of Empires Consulting, the vast majority was allegedly misappropriated or lost. By November 2021, the defendants reportedly ceased honoring participant withdrawal requests, and there is currently no indication that substantial amounts of requested funds were ever returned.
The CFTC is seeking full restitution for defrauded participants, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA). The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have also filed parallel actions in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida concerning related conduct.
The CFTC acknowledged the assistance provided by the SEC and the National Futures Association in this matter.
Source: CFTC.gov
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