The affected groups celebrated the capture of the director, a former advisor to the World Bank (an entity that confirmed to this newspaper that he worked for her) who adds to his work history some alleged collaborations as an advisor to former US President Bill Clinton; and Madeleine Albright, former Secretary of State of the North American country. After three years of battles in the courts, the Italian thus became the first detainee in the case. The public ministry maintains that he was the “visible face” of Nimbus, who “advertised” the product. “He was the trusted person,” points out the prosecutor of the National Court leading the investigations, who attributes to him a “relevant role” in the events. “His resume has been used as a claim on numerous occasions,” adds Judge Gadea in the same vein, which he pointed out when decreeing his imprisonment: “Several of the injured parties have confirmed that what convinced them to invest in Nimbus was the fact that Zanon was in charge of the company, since he conveyed great reliability.”
It all started between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. Nimbus was created in Malta and, through the web, spreads its tentacles. Among other countries, it sets its target on Spain. The company offered its clients to manage their cryptocurrency portfolios with the promise that, through purchase and sale operations, their “revaluation” would translate into a distribution of substantial profits. He claimed that he had designed a bot of arbitration to execute these actions and, according to the researchers, they gave users an electronic certificate—called token— which supposedly backed his deposits. However, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Civil Guard highlight that there are indications that behind everything there was actually a “criminal organization” that, instead of dedicating itself to “buying and selling” bitcoins in search of profitability, “transferred them to third parties.” people, applying bleaching techniques to them.” In this way, although at first they made an effort to have “sufficient capital to maintain” appearances, there came a time when they ceased their activity. On October 9, 2020, as stated in the summary, the company “suspended all its operations, blocking capital withdrawals.” Nimbus has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
In this period, Zanon comes into play, whom the prosecutor and the judge point out as a key factor in attracting investors. As the financier admitted during his statement at the National Court, which lasted about an hour, they signed him to “found the company” and he was listed as “CEO” in the documentation. However, as he assures, it was only symbolic. “I never acted as owner, CEO or partner of the company.” He limits the role of him. He says that he was hired — from the beginning of 2020 to June of that year, with a salary of $10,000 (more than 9,200 euros) per month — to “do three things”: “Training, training and identifying what would be a suitable jurisdiction for the formation of the company.” “My relationship was brief.” “I never had access to checking accounts, to their payment system. I never even had access to the platform because it was not part of the stipulated work,” he repeated to the investigating magistrate.
Zanon, who broke down sobbing at one point during the testimony, presented himself before Judge Gadea as a kind of philanthropist, who was attracted by the idea that Nimbus was established with “the long-term objective of democratizing finance”: “Give access to innovative instruments to users who normally do not have access to them.” And he, as he insists several times to the magistrate, has a 25-year career dedicated to the “management of natural and environmental disasters”, “climate change”, “energy efficiency” and the “empowerment of women entrepreneurs”.
—What is your knowledge in the field of cryptocurrencies? —Magistrate Gadea asked him after presenting his resume.
—Let’s say almost zero […] I have never worked, with the exception of Nimbus, with projects of blockchain or digital currencies —answered the Italian, who states that he has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Bologna and a master’s degree in International Relations from Georgetown University.
Target other suspects
The financier pointed out other suspects during his statement. Andrea Zanon explained that a certain David Mazaheri signed her up for the company: “He lives between Washington and Rome, but I haven’t spoken to him in a while. “I last saw him two years ago,” he told the judge, after assuring him that he met Mazaheri in 2016 or 2017, when he put them in contact with “an Administration employee.” [de Donald] Trump.” And, precisely, Mazaheri repeatedly pointed his finger at this man when asked by the judge. Who was in charge of the day-to-day management of Nimbus and who made decisions? “David, along with his team.” Were they the ones who controlled Nimbus? “Yeah”. Who managed the economic issues? “David Mazaheri. I was not involved in any discussion, in any decision or action related to payments, clients, asset management…” Who was in charge of managing the clients’ cryptocurrencies? “David and his team.”
As Zanon excuses himself, he didn’t even know anything about that software that they promoted and that allowed them to promise high returns to their investors. “They didn’t even make me talk about it because I didn’t understand it,” he added. He also pointed to “Odysseas Kimiskez, a Greek national,” as the “owner of Nimbus.” The defense of the Italian financier clings to all of this: “He only helps publicize a project, but for a short period of time that ends on June 30, 2020, when the company was embryonic and there was no type of possible illegal act. His participation in the events is non-existent. It was probably a mistake: he should not have participated by giving his name. David is the person who has promoted the platform.” However, Judge Gadea did not believe him and decreed his preventive imprisonment due to the “solid indications” that Zanon “launched the Nimbus company” and “contributed his extensive professional experience to create a trusted brand that would serve to attract investors until to ensure that the amount of the scam reaches the desired figures, at which point it begins to take the necessary measures to completely separate itself from the company, even going so far as to pay for the erasure of the digital footprint of this connection.”
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