A Florida investor says he was scammed out of $860,000 by a Denver-based trading “school” and a fake crypto exchange that promised him life-changing profits.

In a lawsuit filed last week in federal court, Brian Firestone alleges that the Alpha Stock Investment Training Center (ASITC), which operated out of downtown Denver, partnered with a fraudulent exchange called CoinBridge Partners in Cherry Creek to carry out the scheme.

Firestone says he was first approached in December by a man named John Smith, who claimed to represent ASITC. Smith offered to teach cryptocurrency trading and gifted him $500 to start.

The trading school’s website, now defunct, listed its address as 1660 Lincoln St. and directed users to trade via CoinBridge,…