{"id":170604,"date":"2026-02-26T21:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170604\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:52:10","slug":"orlando-economic-partnership-scrubs-goliath-ventures-from-website-after-ceos-ponzi-scheme-arrest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/170604\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Economic Partnership scrubs Goliath Ventures from website after CEO’s Ponzi scheme arrest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP<\/a>) is quietly distancing itself from an investor after its CEO was arrested and accused of operating at least a $328 million Ponzi scheme.<\/p>\n

As of Tuesday evening, OEP displayed Goliath Ventures as a investor on its website in a class with some of the most respected organizations in Central Florida, such as Walt Disney Parks & Resorts and the University of Central Florida.<\/p>\n

By Wednesday, OEP removed the reference to Goliath Ventures from its website after Goliath CEO Christopher Delgado was arrested and Florida Politics reached out with questions.<\/p>\n

Delgado, who ran the Orlando cryptocurrency firm, used his reputation as a philanthropist and his affiliations with major organizations to help lure victims to give him more money, according to a federal complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court.<\/p>\n

OEP had listed Goliath as a \u201ctop investor\u201d in a category dubbed \u201cchampions for broad-based prosperity.\u201d Organizations at that level had given at least $200,000.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n\"\"OEP\u2019s website before it got scrubbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoliath came to us last year and were interested in supporting our organization. We are a not for profit supported primarily by private business from a variety of industries \u2014 companies interested in our mission to expand economic prosperity in our region,\u201d OEP spokesperson Laureen Martinez<\/a> said in an email Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey requested to be at our \u2018champions\u2019 membership level. Once they joined, they were inactive. No one from Goliath joined our Board of Directors and this year we made the decision not to re-engage with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez did not immediately respond to follow-up questions, including how much Goliath gave and if OEP had spent the money.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to questions late Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The federal government has not approached OEP over Delgado, Martinez added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Orange County Commissioner Nicole Wilson<\/a> is urging the county to audit OEP as she said OEP\u2019s dealings with Goliath raise alarms.<\/p>\n

\u201cOEP\u2019s ties to Goliath Ventures are deeply troubling and call into question their stewardship of taxpayer dollars,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n

In the past, Wilson has been outspoken about her concerns with OEP, a public-private partnership. She has pushed for greater accountability and for the county to examine how OEP spends its dollars, similar to how the county recently reviewed its contract with Visit Orlando.<\/p>\n

At least one other organization that benefited from Delgado\u2019s generosity already reacted to the news of Delgado\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

The Orlando Sentinel reported<\/a> Delgado offered to donate $2 million in 2025 to Victoria\u2019s Voice, a nonprofit founded by the late Westgate Resorts founder David Siegel and his wife Jacqueline Siegel for combatting drug abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeah Shepherd, the executive director of Victoria\u2019s Voice, said Wednesday the organization only ever received $250,000 from Delgado, none of which was spent,\u201d the Sentinel story said. \u201cThe group\u2019s board decided earlier Wednesday to set the funds aside while the investigation into Delgado is ongoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox 35 Orlando reported<\/a> Delgado listed other charitable gifts to Runway to Hope, the Orlando Magic\u2019s Youth Foundation, and Central Florida SC Youth Soccer Club.<\/p>\n

Delgado, 34, of Apopka, was arrested this week on money laundering and wire fraud charges after he was accused of operating a Ponzi scheme and then spending his victims\u2019 money on real estate and other personal expenses, according to a criminal complaint<\/a> filed in U.S. District Court\u2019s Orlando division.<\/p>\n

One investor lost $720,000 after he expected to get a 7% guaranteed monthly return, the federal complaint said.<\/p>\n

A second investor, who gave Delgado $16 million in 2024, was able to recover his money.<\/p>\n

\u201cVictims 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\u2019s bona fides with investors,\u201d the criminal complaint said.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Goliath hosted an investor event at the Four Seasons Resort in Disney World. The man who later lost $720,000 was impressed and \u201cdescribed the event as extravagant and professionally organized with numerous attendees, which further reinforced his belief that Goliath was a legitimate, well-capitalized enterprise,\u201d the complaint continues.<\/p>\n

People noticed that Delgado was involved in charity work and was a major sponsor, the federal complaint said, although it doesn\u2019t specify which organization Delgado helped.<\/p>\n

Delgado solicited his victims who were promised guarantees or low-risk monthly returns through what was called cryptocurrency \u201cliquidity pools,\u201d according to court records.<\/p>\n

A liquidity pool is a \u201ccrowdsourced pool of coins or tokens,\u201d the criminal complaint said. \u201cLiquidity pools enable users to buy and sell cryptocurrency on decentralized exchanges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead of investing their money into cryptocurrency liquidity pools, Delgado is alleged to have paid for Christmas parties, luxury travel and bought four homes worth $1.15 million to $8.5 million in Windermere, Sanford, Kissimmee and Winter Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Ponzi scheme began to unravel in late 2025 when investors tried to get their principal back but \u201cGoliath delayed payments, provided shifting explanations and ultimately restricted or terminated investor access to purported information about their investments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delgado\u2019s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you believe you are a victim of this offense, please email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>,\u201d the U.S. Department of Justice said in a press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orlando Economic Partnership (OEP) is quietly distancing itself from an investor after its CEO was arrested and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":170605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[80200,5966,32322,80201,81143,61533,81144,139,81145,141,140,24818],"class_list":{"0":"post-170604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-christopher-delgado","9":"tag-cryptocurrency","10":"tag-department-of-justice","11":"tag-goliath-ventures","12":"tag-laureen-martinez","13":"tag-nicole-wilson","14":"tag-oep","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-orlando-economic-partnership","17":"tag-orlando-headlines","18":"tag-orlando-news","19":"tag-ponzi-scheme"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}