Pyramid schemes, those wonderful promises of great return on investments, far beyond anything to be found in banks or stock markets, are the bane of Dominican society and the victims of the scams keep making headlines.
One of the latest cases is that of ATB Football, which was an online betting scam that offered to double any investment in one month. With prizes for recruiting new players, the scam used the internet platform known as Telegram. The scheme also involved the use of crypto currency such as Tether. Everything came crashing down when authorities announced that the platform was not authorized to operate in the Dominican Republic.
The city of San Francisco de Macoris in the northeast was particularly hard hit as crowds gathered at the offices there to demand their money back. And this was just the latest case to reach the news.
Listin Diario recalls other headline-making past cases of pyramid scams…. There was the TelexFree case, which was centered in the United States, but also affected many, many Dominicans and Brazilians living in the United States. The Security and Exchange Commission filed charges against the TelexFree entity, froze all of its assets, and forced its closure in 2014. Tens of millions of dollars were involved in the scam that promised 200% returns on “memberships” in VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) services. The scheme was centered in Massachusetts.
And then there was “Mantequilla” (Wilkin Garcia), who promised to double investments in his 3.14 Inversiones company. It all started off well but eventually collapsed and Garcia is currently under indictment for fraud.
And, of course, the is the case of Jairo Gonzalez, who in 2024 created the Harvest Group & Associates. He carried out a scam of nearly US$100 million in crypto currencies and is currently in prison.
All these cases point to the very old saying that “If it’s too good to be true, it probably isn’t.”
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Listin Diario
Listin Diario
10 March 2025