Virginia Judge Sentences Palafox to 20 Years in Ponzi Case

A federal judge in Virginia sentenced Ramil Ventura Palafox, the 61-year-old chief executive of Praetorian Group International, to 20 years in prison on Thursday for orchestrating a Ponzi scheme that defrauded more than 90,000 investors worldwide out of at least $62.7 million. The scheme, which operated from December 2019 to October 2021, falsely promised daily returns of 0.5 to 3 percent through bitcoin trading and related activities.

Palafox, a dual U.S. and Philippine citizen who founded and led the company as chairman and CEO, controlled Praetorian Group International, or PGI, a multilevel marketing operation that attracted investments totaling over $201 million. Court records indicate that investors contributed more than $30 million in fiat currency and 8,198 bitcoin, valued at approximately $171.5 million during the period. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia stated that PGI did not conduct bitcoin trading at the scale needed to generate the promised returns. Instead, the operation relied on funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier participants, a classic Ponzi structure.

To sustain the deception, Palafox directed the...