Amalgam Founder Charged With Running ‘Sham Blockchain’, Taking $1M From Investors

Prosecutors have charged Jeremy Jordan-Jones, the self-styled founder of a now-defunct crypto startup called Amalgam, with fraud, alleging that he swindled investors in his “sham blockchain” of more than $1 million, using the money to fund a lavish lifestyle.

According to prosecutors, Jordan-Jones painted Amalgam as a tech company that created blockchain-based point-of-sale payment systems, which he claimed had multi-million-dollar partnerships with sports teams including the Golden State Warriors and a professional soccer team in England’s Premier League, as well as a big restaurant conglomerate with more than 500 restaurants. None of these partnerships existed, prosecutors said. Jordan-Jones also allegedly solicited investments from would-be investors by telling them the money would be used to facilitate the listing of Amalgam’s non-existent crypto token on a crypto exchange.

While allegedly spinning stories for investors — including a venture capital firm, identified in a 2022 Forbes article as Brown Venture Group — prosecutors say Jordan-Jones was blowing their money on a luxurious lifestyle for himself, including “hotels and restaurants in Miami,” car payments, and designer clothing.

“Jordan-Jones, capitalizing on the publicity around blockchain technology, perpetrated a brazen scheme to defraud investors,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in a Tuesday press announcement. “He touted his company as a groundbreaking blockchain startup, backed by high-profile partnerships. In reality, Jordan-Jones’s company was a sham, and investors’ funds were siphoned off to bankroll his lavish lifestyle. This should be an example to would-be financial fraudsters that the women and men of the Southern District and the FBI are watching and to the investing public that fraudsters often use the promise of new technology to cloak their schemes.”

Additionally, prosecutors have accused Jordan-Jones of providing falsified documents to a financial institution, which he used to fraudulently obtain a corporate credit card, running up a $350,000 balance before the bank closed his account.

Jordan-Jones has been charged with one count each of wire fraud, securities fraud, making false statements to a financial institution and aggravated identity theft — charges which carry a combined maximum sentence of 82 years in prison. The aggravated identity theft charge carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.