Alleged scheme promised 25% monthly returns on $550 initial investment
Edward Zimbardi, a 59-year-old man from Flowery Branch, Georgia, was deported from Fiji and brought to Los Angeles to face federal charges that he orchestrated a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme defrauding more than 6,000 investors, US Attorney Theodore Hertzberg in Atlanta said Monday.
The 25-count indictment returned in Atlanta federal court charges Zimbardi with 12 counts of wire fraud, 12 counts of money laundering and one count of money-laundering conspiracy. Prosecutors said the alleged scheme ran from June 2022 to August 2023.
According to the indictment, Zimbardi pitched “The Crypto Program” as a means to purchase online advertising packages, promising investors a guaranteed 25% monthly rate of return on a $550 initial investment.
Instead of using investor funds as advertised, prosecutors allege, Zimbardi lost tens of millions of dollars betting on foreign currency and spent at least $10 million on personal expenses — including a house for one of his sons and alimony payments. He also purportedly used new investor money to repay earlier investors, the structure of a classic Ponzi scheme.
Prosecutors said Zimbardi fled to Fiji in July 2025 after learning the FBI was scrutinizing him.
He skipped the May wedding of one of his sons in Virginia after correctly suspecting that agents might try to arrest him there, according to the indictment.
“He had victims all over the world,” Hertzberg said at a news conference. “If you’re promised 25% returns every month by somebody who expresses remorse for having ‘accidentally’ lost your money in the past, you might be willing to go with it because you’re that desperate to get your money back.”
Investigators traveled to Fiji to escort Zimbardi back to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles. He was expected to make an initial appearance in Los Angeles federal court. A federal public defender representing him there did not immediately respond to a request for comment.