In 2017, Brooklyn-based promoter Maksim Zaslavskiy marketed REcoin as a “real-estate-backed” token and later pushed Diamond Reserve Club (DRC World) as a diamond-backed membership story. Marketing claimed professional teams, assets and impressive raise figures. According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), those asset claims did not match reality: no real-estate portfolio, no diamond inventory of the sort advertised, and raise totals that were inflated far beyond what investigators could support — with investor money in the region of a few hundred thousand dollars, not the multi-million show on the site.
The SEC filed a civil action in autumn 2017; criminal proceedings followed. Zaslavskiy argued digital tokens were somehow outside securities law; the court rejected that shortcut. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and, in November 2019, was sentenced to eighteen months in federal prison, with restitution obligations. The case is often cited as an early US signal that a blockchain costume does not cancel the Howey-style investment-contract analysis.
How to use the lesson now: treat “backed by property / gold / diamonds” as a claim that needs custody proofs and audited holdings, not a slogan; check whether a token sale is actually a securities offering in your jurisdiction; and ignore vanity counters on ICO landing pages. If someone today recycles the same “asset-backed club” script on Telegram, demand documents you can verify independently — or walk away.
Old fraud, new wrapper. The wrapper was never the hard part.
If this pattern already cost you money, start at Get help. Anyone selling guaranteed restoration for an upfront crypto fee: Fake recovery.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.