Source: US FBI
An indictment was unsealed today in the District of Puerto Rico charging two men for their alleged roles in operating and promoting OmegaPro, an international investment scheme that defrauded victim investors of over $650 million.
According to court documents, Michael Shannon Sims, 48, of Georgia and Florida, was a founder, strategic consultant, and promoter of OmegaPro, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57, of New Jersey and Florida, led OmegaPro’s operations in Latin America and parts of the United States, including Puerto Rico.
“As alleged, the defendants preyed upon vulnerable individuals in the U.S. and abroad, defrauding them of over $650 million by making false promises of substantial returns and that their money was safe,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, Head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Criminal Division is committed to prosecuting these bad actors and pursuing justice for their many victims. Thanks to the dedicated work of our multiagency and international law enforcement partners, we are leading efforts to combat these complex and insidious digital asset investor scams.”
“As alleged in the indictment, the defendants operated a global fraud scheme through OmegaPro that deceived investors with false promises of extraordinary returns, only to misappropriate hundreds of millions of victim funds,” said U.S. Attorney W. Stephen Muldrow for the District of Puerto Rico. “We remain committed to dismantling international financial schemes that target U.S. victims — including here in Puerto Rico — and to recovering illicit proceeds through criminal prosecution and asset forfeiture.”
“The FBI will not stand by while the American public is defrauded,” said Assistant Director Joe Perez of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “Through coordination with our partners, these individuals will have to defend their actions in a court of law.”
“This case exposes the ruthless reality of modern financial crime,” said Chief Guy Ficco of the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). “OmegaPro promised financial freedom but delivered financial ruin – stealing over $650 million from everyday people and vanishing it into virtual currency. These weren’t just scams; they were precision-engineered betrayals. Our job is to stand up for those who’ve been exploited and continue our cross-agency collaboration until those responsible are brought to justice.”
“This case highlights the critical role international partnerships play in dismantling transnational financial fraud schemes that exploit global markets and victimize unsuspecting investors,” said International Operations Assistant Director Ricardo Mayoral of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). “HSI remains committed to working with our partners worldwide to disrupt criminal networks that weaponize emerging technologies to conceal illicit profits and defraud the public.”
Sims and co-conspirators established OmegaPro in or about January 2019, and Reynoso joined a few months later, in or about April 2019. As alleged, the defendants and others operated and promoted OmegaPro as a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme for investors to purchase “investment packages,” which the defendants and others falsely promised would generate 300% returns over 16 months through foreign exchange (forex) trading by elite traders. Investors were instructed to purchase these investment packages using virtual currency.
According to court documents, Sims allegedly misled victims by vouching for OmegaPro’s trading performance and the skills of the hired traders and by falsely advertising the safety of investment in OmegaPro. Reynoso allegedly falsely and misleadingly represented that OmegaPro was operating pursuant to a legitimate license and, at other times, that OmegaPro was not subject to any country’s legal rules. The indictment alleges that Sims and Reynoso, together with co-conspirators, hosted lavish OmegaPro promotional events and trainings all over the world including, for example, projecting the OmegaPro logo onto the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, at an event in Dubai. The objective of these promotional events allegedly was to convince existing and prospective investors that OmegaPro was a legitimate enterprise that offered a path to wealth and a luxurious lifestyle.
Further, Sims, Reynoso, and their co-conspirators used social media to display their expensive vacations and cars, as well as their designer clothes and watches. The indictment alleges that through the defendants’ and others’ misrepresentations, OmegaPro raised over $650 million in virtual currency from thousands of investors. After OmegaPro announced that it had suffered a network hack, Reynoso and others told victims in or about January 2023 that their investments were secure and that OmegaPro was transferring their investments to another platform called Broker Group. Despite these representations, victims were unable to withdraw money from either their OmegaPro accounts or their accounts at Broker Group, resulting in millions in victim losses.
The more than $650 million in funds raised from victims allegedly was first sent to virtual currency wallet addresses controlled by OmegaPro executives and then allegedly transferred to OmegaPro insiders and high-ranking promoters to disperse the funds and obscure their origins. As alleged, Sims and Reynoso both profited millions from this scheme.
Both defendants are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. If convicted, Sims and Reynoso each face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.
The FBI, IRS-CI, and HSI New York are investigating the case, with assistance from FBI’s Virtual Asset Unit, HSI Bangkok, HSI Bogota, HSI Frankfurt, HSI Istanbul, HSI London, HSI Miami, HSI New Delhi, HSI The Hague, the Office of the Attorney General of Colombia, and the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5), an alliance between the Australian Taxation Office, the Canada Revenue Agency, the Dutch Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs from the U.K., and IRS-CI.
Trial Attorneys Ariel Glasner and Tamara Livshiz of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Gottfried for the District of Puerto Rico and on detail to the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section are prosecuting the case.
If you believe you were potentially victimized by OmegaPro or have information relevant to this investigation, please visit the FBI’s Victim Witness website at forms.fbi.gov/victims/omegaprovictims or contact OmegaProVictims@fbi.gov.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.