Man claiming to be UF PhD student arrested for fraudulent investment scheme in which he allegedly pocketed almost $200k
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Justin Kenneth Floyd, 28, of Miami, was booked into the Alachua County Jail on January 23 on seven felony charges related to funds he allegedly promised to invest for “friends and family” but instead spent on buying a BMW and other personal expenses.
The case, which was investigated by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation, began in July 2018 and continued through October 2021; the investigator alleges that Floyd fraudulently obtained a minimum of $192,340.21 from victims in Alachua, Miami-Dade, and Brevard counties by making untrue statements in connection with the offer or sale of an investment. The probable cause affidavit states, “[T]he defendant used most of the funds on personal expenditures such as restaurants, retail purchases, travel, and the purchase of a vehicle and vehicle accessories. The defendant’s actions resulted in victim losses of $179,340.21.”
Floyd was reportedly never registered in Florida as an investment adviser, broker-dealer, investment adviser representative, or broker-dealer agent.
Flord reportedly filed papers in May 2018 to create a company called Adomium Solutions LLC, with himself as the only corporate officer and an address at an apartment complex near the University of Florida in Gainesville. No further annual reports were filed, and the company became inactive in September 2019.
Adomium Solutions’ website reportedly said the company was a “software based, cryptocurrency investment platform” that had created a “bot” to “execute trading decisions by directly accessing the exchange that your cryptocurrency is stored on… The trading bot can perform extremely well by utilizing calculations on when to buy and sell…”
The website reportedly claimed that no unprofitable trades had been made by the bot in the month of February 2018 and that the returns amounted to 13% in less than a month.
One victim reportedly gave Floyd $40,000 to invest “at no cost” because he was “friends and family,” but Floyd allegedly transferred the money to his own bank account, with an address in Gainesville, and used about $27,000 of it to pay off a BMW. Other expenditures made shortly after that deposit included payments to restaurants, gas stations, convenience stores, an online mattress store, and transfers to individuals with no known connections to the investment.
At one point, Floyd returned $12,000 of the investment to the victim, allegedly funded by a deposit from another “investor.” Floyd reportedly later told the victim he couldn’t refund more of the money because it “could be viewed as money laundering and accounting wouldn’t let it.” Floyd reportedly later wrote that other clients had “10s of millions of dollars with us” and he couldn’t refund the victim’s money because “I really can’t let something small bring an audit to the business or worse.” The victim reportedly never received the remaining $28,000.
A second victim, who sent Floyd money from a bank account in Gainesville, believed that Floyd had earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UF and that he was enrolled in a PhD in advanced mathematics at UF. According to the investigator, records show that Floyd enrolled at UF in 2016 as a junior college transfer from Miami-Dade College and took courses in Fall 2016, Spring 2017, and Fall 2017; he never earned a degree from UF.
Floyd allegedly told the second victim he would double his investment in a month and that he could withdraw his money at any time without a penalty. Floyd reportedly sent a document to the second victim that showed a year-to-date investment return on Adomium Solutions’ currency trading program of 61.86%. The investigator reported that the document was copied from a different company, with some fields changed to make it appear to represent Adomium Solutions’ earnings and edits to the monthly returns to show big increases (for example, the May return for the original company was 1.06, and Adomium’s was 11.06; December was changed from 2.87 to 12.87.)
Another document sent to the victim reportedly showed that Adomium Solutions had capital contributions of over $185 million, but the investigator reported, “The defendant’s financial records do not substantiate this claim.”
Floyd also reportedly gave the second victim a document that said the funds would be protected by the FDIC.
The second victim reportedly gave Floyd $10,000, which Floyd reportedly used to buy cryptocurrency and automobile wheels and then sent money via Venmo to individuals unrelated to the victim’s investment. The second victim also reportedly transferred .249 BTC (bitcoin) to Floyd, which Floyd allegedly sent to another account; the investigator was unable to determine the ownership of that account.
Floyd allegedly gave the victim a statement that showed an account balance of $24,225.59 in his account, and “based on this high rate of growth, [the second victim] decided to invest additional money with [Floyd].” He reportedly sent another $22,000, which Floyd allegedly used to buy cryptocurrency (later transferred to another account that did not benefit the second victim) and made nine Zelle transfers totaling over $16,000 to individuals.
The second victim reportedly became concerned that Adomium Solutions was a scam and started asking for his money back, but Floyd reportedly gave excuses for why he couldn’t return the money and eventually sent a message that said withdrawals must be requested six months in advance, and “Trust me, I wouldn’t waste my time, your time, and my lawyers time with something under 100k.” The second victim never received any money and lost almost $35,000.
The investigator laid out similar accounts for three other victims and charged Floyd with four counts of grand theft over $20,000, one count of grand theft over $5,000, engaging in an organized scheme to defraud, and engaging in investment fraud over $50,000 with five or more victims. Floyd has no criminal history, and Judge Kristine Van Vorst set bail at $250,000, which Floyd posted a short time later.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.Â
Complicated scheme, I just wish judges were as tough on our local violent criminals as they are on this guy.
“Floyd allegedly told the second victim he would double his investment in a month and that he could withdraw his money at any time without a penalty.”
If it sounds too good to be true…..don’t let greed make your decision.
Crime does pay…until you get caught.
Then there’s that other thing about a sucker being born every minute. Still doesn’t make it right – look at all the voters out there.
The judge should have kept him in jail until he paid back those he deceived.
Insane that a kid in his mid 20s had a successfully operational Ponzi Scheme even if it only lasted a short period of time.
That is a rough 28!
That’s an interesting headline.
Just think if they arrested every person who claimed to be something other than what they are.
So, what he is not that smart.
Just saying.
Looks like a pill head with those pill head bags under his eyes.
Old Ponzi schemes never die, and they never completely fade away, they just keep resurfacing.
One of trumps thugs. Lock him up and throw away the key!
It is Mr. Floyd’s lucky year.
Our new president Elon Musk has proposed eliminating ALL federal regulations, then adding back any we might find useful. Musk wants to eliminate the criminality of Ponzi schemes, so Mr. Floyd would not face any federal charges, as he committed no crime in the Banana Republic of Trumpistan.