Argyle Coin
A purported diamond-backed cryptocurrency run by Jose Angel Aman as the latest stage of a multi-year diamond-investment Ponzi. The SEC said the linked schemes raised about $30M from 300+ investors; Aman was sentenced in 2020 to six years and ordered to pay ~$23M in restitution.
Also known as: Argyle Coin, Jose Angel Aman, Natural Diamonds Investment, Eagle Financial Diamond Group
Summary
Argyle Coin was marketed by Jose Angel Aman as a "risk-free" cryptocurrency backed by fancy colored diamonds. The SEC said it was a continuation of a Ponzi scheme Aman had run since about 2014 through two earlier companies, Natural Diamonds Investment Co. and Eagle Financial Diamond Group, which falsely promised profits from buying and reselling diamonds. [1][2]
Scale and outcome
The SEC said the linked schemes raised about $30 million from more than 300 investors in the U.S. and Canada, with new investors' money used to pay earlier ones and to fund Aman's personal expenses (including rent, horses, and riding lessons). Aman pleaded guilty and was sentenced in December 2020 to six years in prison and ordered to pay more than $23 million in restitution. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
World Liberty Financial (WLFI) — Justin Sun token freezeProjectsWLFI, a DeFi project linked to Donald Trump and his family, blacklisted/froze the wallet of major investor Justin Sun in Sept 2025 — ~540–595M unlocked WLFI tokens (~$107M) plus ~2.4B locked. Sun sued, alleging an undisclosed admin 'blacklist backdoor'; WLFI denied it and threatened a countersuit. The dispute is ongoing.
Gala Games exploitTokensOn May 20, 2024 an attacker abused a privileged minter account on the GALA token contract to mint 5 billion GALA (≈$200M+ nominal) and dumped ~600M of them for ~$22M of ETH before Gala froze the address. Gala Games called it an internal access-control failure; the attacker later returned the ~$22M.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.
