The SEC has unmasked the scammer behind the My Micro Profits Ponzi scheme.

In a lawsuit filed against him, the SEC alleges Ryan Ginster, of California, “raised over $3.6 million” from investors.

Ginster (right) is behind My Micro Profits and Social Profimatic.

Both scams, which the SEC identifies as “virtually identical”, were bitcoin Ponzi schemes.

Ginster contacted an unnamed company selling “HYIP software” under the alias “Ryan Oakley”.

Ponzi scripts for both Social Profimatic and My Micro Profits were purchased from the same company.

In an undated handwritten note to himself, Ginster states that the “proof of concept” for the “Microprofit” system would have a “program that checks total deposits each day and then puts together random report[sic] to show income generated[.]”

BehindMLM reviewed Social Profimatic in April 2018. Social Profimatic advertised an 8% daily ROI and pyramid recruitment commissions.

Compounded for a year, this came to annual return of 1.5 trillion percent.

Based on comments left on our review, Social Profimatic lasted just over a month.

My Micro Profits was reviewed in July 2020. My Micro Profits advertised a 0.13% hourly return and pyramid recruitment commissions.

Within a week of publishing our review, My Micro Profit investors began reporting non-payment.

BehindMLM’s research into Social Profimatic and My Micro Profits syncs with what the SEC found through their own investigation.

Ginster did business under the names of both SP and MMP, neither of which existed as a separate entity.

Both allegedly ran online high yield investment programs (“HYIPs”) that promised investors astronomical rates of return in a short period of time.

In both schemes, Ginster misrepresented how investor funds would be used and how easily those funds could be withdrawn.

Despite running for around 35 days, Social Profimatic still took in $844,667 in bitcoin (valued at the time).

Investment was received from “over 9,000 separate BTC investor deposits … totaling 98.12 BTC”.

My Micro Profits had a longer run and took in $2.8 million in bitcoin (again valued at the time).

Investment was received from “at least 9,916 separate BTC investor deposits”.

Ginster ran Social Profimatic on the ruse “social inventory” would be “sold to business owners on demand”.

Instead,

Ginster transferred (invested) funds to and amongst at least five other digital asset wallets under his control, as well as converting BTC to fiat currency to pay his personal expenses.

On information and belief, these transfers do not indicate that Ginster ever attempted to generate returns on the BTC through social media marketing orders as promised.

My Micro Profits’ ruse was practically every MLM crypto Ponzi ruse cliche; “transaction processing fees, cloud hosting, cryptocurrency trading and advertising arbitrage”.

I think the only one Ginster missed was mining.

In any event, as with Social Profimatic, here’s what actually happened;

Once MMP received investors’ BTC, Ginster transferred the funds to and amongst at least five other digital asset wallets under his control, as well as converting BTC to fiat currency to pay his personal expenses.

Between at least February 2018 through February 2021, Ginster … subsequently converted portions of that BTC into more than $1 million in U.S. currency.

Ginster spent the vast majority of these U.S. dollars on personal expenses such as tax payments, mortgage payments, a luxury vehicle, and almost $200,000 in various credit card bills.

The SEC seeks an injunction and judgement pertaining to Ginster’s alleged violations of the Securities and Exchange Act.

Ginster will also have to pay a civil penalty, and ‘disgorge all funds receive from his illegal conduct, together with prejudgment interest thereon’.

At time of publication the SEC’s case against Ginster has yet to appear on Pacer. I’ll check the docket again tomorrow for an update.

In parallel with the SEC’s civil proceedings, the DOJ has filed criminal charges against Ginster over the same conduct.

Stay tuned for an article covering Ginster’s criminal case.

 

Update 19th November 2021 – BehindMLM’s article covering Ginster’s criminal case is live.

 

Update 20th November 2021 – Ginster’s SEC case is now on Pacer. I’ve checked the docket and there’s no significant updates.

I’ve added the case to BehindMLM’s calendar so we’ll continue to monitor the docket.

 

Update 8th March 2022 – On February 22nd the DOJ filed a motion requesting a stay of the SEC’s civil proceedings.

On March 1st the DOJ’s motion was granted.

The Court directs the Clerk to remove the case from the Courts active caseload until further application by the parties or order of this Court.

The parties shall file a joint status report within 120 days, and a further report every 120 days thereafter.

I’ll continue to monitor the case docket but it appears we won’t get any substantial updates till Ginster’s criminal case is over.

 

Update 19th January 2024 – Ryan Ginster died serving his prison sentence on December 9th, 2023.

 

Update 20th April 2024 – Following Ginster’s death, SEC Commissioners have opted to dismiss the case against Ginster.

At his time of death Ginster had reached a signed settlement with the SEC. Copies of the signed settlement however had not yet been given to the SEC for consideration.

Accordingly, the SEC respectfully requests that the Court enter the proposed order submitted by the SEC dismissing all of its claims against Mr. Ginster.

The court has scheduled a motion on the SEC’s request for voluntary dismissal for May 20th, 2024.