On August 26, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a second superseding indictment against Kristijan Krstic, the alleged mastermind of a $70 million Ponzi scheme involving multiple fraudulent platforms, including Options Rider, Bancde Options, and Start Options, per the Northern District of Texas court docket. This marks the third indictment in Krstic’s case, filed just two days after his sentencing was postponed to November 6, 2025, due to procedural issues, per. The new filing primarily expands criminal forfeiture provisions, targeting assets like Serbian properties, luxury vehicles, watches, and €31,100, believed to be traceable to the fraud, per. Krstic, extradited from Georgia in October 2023 after arrests in Serbia and Georgia, faces up to 20 years per count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering, per.
Krstic, using aliases like Kristian Jacobs and Felix Logan, orchestrated a network of over 20 fraudulent platforms from bases in Serbia, China, Australia, and the Philippines, defrauding global investors of more than $70 million from 2014 to 2020, per the DOJ’s 2020 superseding indictment. Schemes included binary options frauds like Options Rider and crypto mining Ponzis such as Dragon Mining Tech (encompassing Crypto Mining Space, Palilula Mining, BTC Trader Online, BTC Mining Factory, and Coin Pool Mining), Trinity Mining, Bitcoiin, and Hedger Tech, per. No actual trading or mining occurred; funds were used for personal expenses and commissions, per. Krstic pleaded guilty in April 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud from the first superseding indictment, per.
The second superseding indictment, filed July 25, 2025, and unsealed recently, lists 12 named defendants (four redacted) without adding new charges or defendants, per. Named individuals include Xenia Faye Atilano Krstic (Krstic’s wife, aka Majda Pratejc), Marko Pavlovic (aka Bjorn Emerson), Uros Slakovic (aka Lax Lesmo), Gary Peckham, Nenad Krstic (aka Roland Valgerdur), Andrija Selakovic (aka Andy Alinary), Blazo Radulovic, Nikola Dimitrijevic, Nenad Mladenovic, and Milos Mitic (aka Tom Hardian), per. Absent are Haojia Miao (pleaded guilty in December 2021, unsentenced) and Antonije Stojiljkovic (sentenced to 3 years in March 2023), per. Forfeiture targets include:
These assets are deemed “proceeds traceable to the scheme,” per the Grand Jury’s probable cause finding.
Krstic’s original indictment was filed under seal in March 2020, with a superseding version in July 2020, unsealed in February 2021, per. He was arrested in Serbia in July 2020, released on house arrest, and fled with his wife in August 2021, per. Rearrested in Georgia in February 2023, he was extradited to Texas in October 2023, per. His April 2025 guilty plea from the first superseding indictment carries a recommended 10-year sentence, with forfeiture of the listed assets, per. The second superseding indictment may require a new plea, but charges remain unchanged, per. Sentencing is set for November 6, 2025, per. Co-defendants like John DeMarr (5 years in January 2023) and Jaira David (3 years in January 2023) have been sentenced, per.
Krstic’s case, part of a broader crackdown on MLM crypto Ponzis, highlights risks in unregulated schemes, with $70M+ in losses echoing Forsage ($340M) and GSPartners ($1B), per. Bitcoin (BTC) ($113,234) and Ethereum (ETH) ($4,070) remain stable, per CoinMarketCap, but such indictments could deter speculative investments. The SEC’s parallel civil case, filed in February 2021, seeks disgorgement and penalties, per. X posts from @CryptoLawyerz discuss the expanded forfeiture as a DOJ tactic to recover assets, per [post:1]. Investors should verify platforms via sec.gov and avoid MLM schemes.
Krstic’s November sentencing could lead to 10+ years in prison and asset seizures, per. The case underscores DOJ’s focus on transnational fraud, with FBI and IRS-CI leading investigations, per. For investors, it signals heightened scrutiny on crypto Ponzis, potentially reducing fraud but impacting DeFi sentiment, per Coinlaw.io. Monitor updates on pacer.gov and diversify into USDC or ETH with stop-losses below BTC’s $112,000, per TradingView. Follow @TheBlock__ on X for developments. If convicted, this could set precedents for future Ponzi prosecutions in 2026, per.
