FBI gets alleged $165 million crypto Ponzi scheme mastermind back after year-long Fiji escape

Edward Zimbardi has been returned to the US after being deported from Fiji, putting the alleged mastermind of a $165 million crypto investment scheme back within reach of federal prosecutors.

A federal grand jury in Georgia indicted Zimbardi on July 8 on 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.

Prosecutors allege Zimbardi operated The Crypto Program from June 2022 through August 2023, selling advertising packages that promised investors guaranteed monthly returns of 25%.

Thousands of investors sent more than $165 million in cryptocurrency to wallets secretly controlled by Zimbardi, prosecutors said.

Rather than using the money as advertised, Zimbardi allegedly directed more than $34 million into high-risk foreign currency trading, used funds from newer investors to pay earlier participants, and spent at least $10 million on personal expenses.

Those expenses allegedly included luxury vehicles, a home for his son, and alimony payments.

The payment structure forms the basis of the government’s Ponzi scheme allegation, with prosecutors claiming returns paid to earlier participants were funded by money from later investors rather than profits generated by the business.

California regulators had already moved against the operation while it was active.

In June 2023, the state’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation ordered The Crypto Program to stop offering the investment packages, finding they were unqualified securities and that investors had been given materially misleading information.

The alleged scheme ended about two months later.

The Justice Department said Zimbardi fled to Fiji in July 2025 after learning that the FBI was investigating him. Fijian authorities deported him to the US on Aug. 14, 2026, in coordination with the FBI and State Department.

His return closes the international phase of the case and clears the way for prosecutors to pursue the charges in Georgia.

Zimbardi was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles on Aug. 17, with prosecutors seeking to keep him detained pending further proceedings. The Justice Department had not disclosed the outcome of that hearing in its latest statement.

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