The Georgia man federal prosecutors call the mastermind of a $165 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme affecting more than 6,000 victims is now back in U.S. custody and expected to return to Georgia to face criminal charges.
Ed Zimbardi, who has been the focus of a years-long Channel 2 Action News investigation, appeared Monday before a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles after being deported from Fiji and taken into custody by the FBI.
Federal prosecutors allege Zimbardi operated a massive fraud scheme known as "The Crypto Program" from suburban Atlanta, collecting investments from thousands of people across the country while using investor money to fund a luxury lifestyle and make risky currency trades.
Photos released by authorities show Zimbardi being deported from Fiji and then handcuffed by FBI agents after arriving in Los Angeles.
"The Department of Justice will hunt alleged schemers literally to the ends of the earth and drag them back to face justice," U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg said.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray first introduced Channel 2 Action News viewers to Zimbardi and The Crypto Program during a 2024 investigation.
At the time, investors described watching their cryptocurrency accounts grow and believing they were part of a successful investment opportunity.
It was a promise of fast, easy money that impacted people from all over the country.
"It's a feeling that I can't replicate," investor Nathan Whaley said.
"The money was hitting my crypto wallet," another investor told Gray, asking only to be identified as Jennifer over fear of retaliation.
"I kept saying to people, you know, there's never a losing day," investor Derek Corrado said.
"It was going great. It was going phenomenal even. And it was hard to believe that it wasn't real. Like you couldn't convince me otherwise," Whaley said.
Everything they invested disappeared.
Prosecutors now allege the operation was a Ponzi scheme.
A federal grand jury indictment charges Zimbardi with wire fraud and money laundering.
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According to prosecutors, the scheme raised approximately $165 million from more than 6,000 investors.
The indictment alleges that between June 2022 and August 2023, Zimbardi allegedly created and promoted "The Crypto Program."
In his promotional videos and websites, Zimbardi allegedly told investors that The Crypto Program was an opportunity to invest in advertising packages with a guaranteed 25% monthly return.
Investors were encouraged to pay for their advertising packages by moving cryptocurrency into wallets Zimbardi secretly controlled.
"The advertising packages were fictitious. Zimbardi actually used the money to gamble and lose tens of millions of dollars on trading foreign currencies," Hertzberg said.
Channel 2 Action News has tracked Zimbardi for more than two years, attempting to contact him at multiple Georgia homes and following his travels from the Netherlands to Fiji.
"I enjoy helping people, and when people lose money for whatever reason, I enjoy helping them recover it," Zimbardi told YouTuber "the Ponzi Patrol" in 2024.
He also maintained he was just an investor like everyone else, and that the real people behind the program wanted to remain anonymous.
Federal prosecutors dispute that claim, saying Zimbardi was solely responsible for the operation.
"Zimbardi is the only individual charged in this indictment," Hertzberg said. "This is a one-defendant, 25-count indictment. Zimbardi ran this scheme."
Prosecutors say Zimbardi even skipped his son's wedding this year because he knew the FBI was looking for him.
Zimbardi will eventually be transported to Georgia, where he will face the charges outlined in the indictment.
The FBI has also launched a victim information website and is encouraging anyone who invested in The Crypto Program to provide information about their losses as investigators work to recover assets.
CLICK HERE to submit information through the FBI's website.