FBI Returns Alleged $165M Crypto Ponzi Mastermind From Fiji

Instead of using the money as advertised, Zimbardi allegedly directed more than $34 million into high-risk foreign currency trading, paid earlier participants with money from newer investors, and spent at least $10 million on personal expenses. Those expenses included luxury vehicles, a home for his son, and alimony payments, according to the indictment.

The payment structure is the basis for the government's Ponzi scheme allegation. Returns paid to early participants were funded by later investors, not by any business profits, prosecutors claim.

California regulators had already moved against the operation while it was still active. In June 2023, the state's Department of Financial Protection and Innovation ordered The Crypto Program to stop offering the investment packages, finding they were unqualified securities that gave investors materially misleading information. The alleged scheme ended about two months later.

The Justice Department said Zimbardi fled to Fiji in July 2025 after learning the FBI was investigating him. Fijian authorities deported him to the US on Aug. 14 in coordination with the FBI and the State Department.

His return closes the international phase of the case and clears the way for prosecutors to pursue the charges in Georgia. Zimbardi was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles on Aug. 17, with prosecutors seeking to keep him detained. The Justice Department had not disclosed the outcome of that hearing in its latest statement.