United States Seeks Civil Forfeiture of Real Properties and Vehicles Purchased with Proceeds of Goliath Ventures Fraud Scheme

Orlando, Florida - A civil forfeiture complaint has been filed against 7 real properties and 11 vehicles allegedly purchased by Christopher Delgado with proceeds of a wire fraud scheme for which he was charged in February 2026, making them subject to civil forfeiture. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe made the announcement.

According to the civil forfeiture complaint, Delgado was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Goliath Ventures ("Goliath"), formerly known as Gen-Z Venture Firm. From January 2023 through January 2026, Delgado operated Goliath as a "Ponzi scheme," which is a form of investment fraud that involves the payment of purported returns to existing investors from funds contributed by new investors. Delgado's scheme involved soliciting victims to invest substantial sums of money under false and fraudulent promises of monthly returns generated through cryptocurrency "liquidity pools." Victims were induced to give money to Goliath through personal referrals, professional marketing materials, luxury events, charitable sponsorships, and some monthly payments of purported returns, all of which were designed to establish Goliath's bona fides with investors. Based on these false and fraudulent representations, Goliath obtained at least $400 million from more than 1,000 victim investors.

Although Goliath represented that it would place the victim investors' funds in cryptocurrency liquidity pools, in reality, the funds were primarily used to pay purported returns to earlier investors, to return principal to investors who requested it, and for Goliath's extravagant business gatherings, holiday parties, and luxury travel accommodations. Delgado used approximately $17 million in victim investors' funds to buy five homes and office space. He also spent more than $2.5 million in victim investors' funds to purchase, lease, or pay off loans on 11 vehicles (the "Defendant Assets"). Most of these purchases or loan satisfactions constituted monetary transactions knowingly conducted by Delgado with more than $10,000 in proceeds of wire fraud, making those Defendant Assets subject to forfeiture as property involved in money laundering. In addition, Delgado used victim investors' funds to make mortgage payments on a home he had purchased in 2021.

The chart below includes the Defendant Assets as well as their purchase price and acquisition date.

Since February 2026, the United States has been seizing assets traceable to the fraud scheme perpetrated by Delgado and others through Goliath Ventures, Inc. The Defendant Assets are a particular subset of forfeitable assets that are expensive to maintain and either depreciating in value, secured by liens and/or subject to property taxes that are continuing to accrue significant interest and may be in default. In order to maximize the recovery of fraud proceeds, the United States has determined that these assets must be forfeited as expeditiously as possible. One of the primary goals of the Department of Justice's Asset Forfeiture Program is recovering assets that may be used to compensate victims when authorized under federal law. See The Attorney General's Guidelines on the Asset Forfeiture Program (July 2018), at 1, https://www.justice.gov/criminal/criminal-mlars/file/1123146/dl?inline=. The civil forfeiture statutes relied upon in this case provide such authority.

The United States' criminal investigation of the fraud scheme is ongoing. Investigators are also working to locate and seize additional property- held by Christopher Delgado or others-traceable to proceeds of Goliath fraud. If you have information related to execution of the fraud scheme or the identification or location of assets traceable to the fraud, please contact [email protected].

This civil forfeiture case is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Anita Cream and Blain Goff.