An investor from Florida says that he was scammed $ 860,000 by a commercial “school” based in Denver and a false exchange of crypto which promised him profits that change his life.
In a legal action tabled last week before a Federal Court, Brian Firestone alleys that the Alpha Stock Investment Training Center (ASITC), which operated from downtown Denver, has teamed up with a fraudulent exchange called Coincabridge Partners in Cherry Creek to carry out the program.
Firestone says that he was approached for the first time in December by a man named John Smith, who claimed to represent Asitc. Smith proposed teaching trading in cryptocurrencies and offered him $ 500 to start.
The website of the commercial school, now deceased, entered its address at 1660, rue Lincoln and ordered users to trade via Coinbridge, which claimed to have collected $ 10 million from 600 investors. “Coquerbridge is really an entirely false exchange,” wrote Firestone in the complaint.
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The Crypto School used commercial signals to attract investors
ASITC would have used a method called signal trading. According to the prosecution, the “teachers” sent a message to the participants like Firestone with exact commercial instructions at a specific time. The students would then click to execute the profession via their Coinbridge account.
Firestone says that its $ 500 initials quickly increased to $ 55,000, which prompted him to invest $ 50,000 more in January. In a few weeks, its balance showed $ 2 million.
“Professor, I must thank you,” said Firestone on February 8. “My results were exceptional. Thank you for leaving me in this job today. It’s so exciting!”
However, the excitement did not last. A losing trade would have brought its balance back to $ 12,000. Firestone then wired $ 470,000 in cash and obtained a loan of $ 330,000 from the ASITC to continue to negotiate. He says that his Coinbridge account went to $ 24.5 million, until USDT exchange on March 9 was not executed.
“I can’t close it,” said a message to Firestone. “I am not notching.” Firestone was informed that a “system error” had caused the problem and erased its balance.
Two days later, he borrowed $ 1 million more from ASITC, bringing his account to $ 6.6 million. However, when he could not reimburse part of the loan, Asitc would have closed his account on May 1.
The costume accuses ASITC, Coinbridge, Smith and the founder Raymond Torres with fraud, flight and racketeering. The Real Coinbridge Partners of Wyoming denied any link with the alleged scam.
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$ 2.1b stolen crypto in 2025
Until now, in 2025, more than $ 2.1 billion have been stolen in crypto incidents, most losses related to portfolio compromises and mismanagement, said the co-founder of Certik Rongui Gu. The trend indicates an increasing passage of hacks based on the code to targeting user behavior.
In 2024 alone, phishing attacks represented more than a billion dollars in losses on nearly 300 incidents, making it the most damaging attack in cryptographic space.
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