6 February 23 - March 1, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Month XX–Month XX, 2008 miaminewtimes.com MIAMI NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | FILM | ART | STAGE | NIGHT+DAY | METRO | RIPTIDE | LETTERS | CONTENTS | #GIRLBOSS Who is the Miami crypto queen accused of devising plan to overthrow the 2020 election? BY ALEX DELUCA S he was once an obscure cryptocurrency promoter in Miami. Now, she’s at the heart of na- tional intrigue, accused of providing a far- right group with a detailed plan to overturn a presidential election. Eryka Gemma Flores is known in Miami’s cryptocurrency circles as a venture capitalist and fierce advocate for digital currency. She founded the city’s Bitcoin Center, a tech edu- cation hub in the downtown area, and sup- ported Mayor Francis Suarez’s efforts to prop the city up as the country’s “crypto capital.” She has described herself as the “Godmother of the Miami Crypto Scene.” But according to a New York Times report, Flores (identified in the story as “Eryka Gemma”) had interests that extended well beyond the cryptocurrency world. One week before the January 6, 2021 in- surrection, the report states, Flores provided then-Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio with a document titled “1776 Returns,” which outlined a plan to storm government build- ings around the Capitol, including the House and Senate office buildings and the U.S. Supreme Court. The document is a core component of the seditious conspiracy charge for which Tarrio and other members of the Proud Boys are currently on trial in Washington, D.C., court. Text messages introduced as evidence in the trial show correspondence in which an “Eryk-A” transmits the document to Tarrio around 12:50 p.m. on December 30, 2020. “If you don’t like my plan, let me know. I will pitch elsewhere,” one message to Tarrio reads. “But I want you to be the executor and benefitor of my brilliance.” When describing the messages, federal prosecutors in the Tarrio trial have referenced the sender as “Erika Flores,” noting that she pleaded the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer questions about the 1776 Returns doc- ument after receiving a subpoena last year. (She has not been charged in the case.) One witness, prosecutors say, described Flores as a former girlfriend of Tarrio. Samuel Armes, president of the Florida Blockchain Business Association, testified before a congressional committee that he be- lieved the 1776 Returns plan was derived from a “war-gaming” document that he shared with Flores, whom he knew through the Florida cryptocurrency community. His document was a thought exercise in what would happen if a sitting president refused to leave office, he claimed. Armes, a former analyst for the U.S. State Department who is trained as an intelligence operative, told the committee that Flores had taken his “ideas as an inspiration, and she or some group of people then turned it into ‘1776 Returns.’” During the proceedings, Armes was asked why Flores had been claiming Armes au- thored the 1776 Returns plan and implored her to share it with Tarrio — to which he re- sponded, “I guess she’s just blame-shifting.” Who Is Eryka Flores? A self-described libertarian, Flores was the youngest delegate in Washington state to work for the 2012 Ron Paul presidential campaign. She has attributed her love for cryptocurrency to her roots in libertarian politics, at one point noting that many of the early embracers of the Bitcoin movement followed an “anarchist” ideology. Flores graduated from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in aeronautics science and obtained a private pilot license. Later, while working for a bank in the aircraft leasing division, she recalled asking a big- time banker what he thought about Bitcoin during a video conference call. “He laughed at me, and everyone in the conference call laughed at me,” Flores said during a 2019 interview. “So I was like, this means that there’s something to this...Then I just went down the rabbit hole.” After her stint in the aircraft trad- ing and leasing in- dustry, she pivoted to cryptocurrency, launching “Miami International Bit- coin” in 2015, which Flores de- scribed as a “meet- up group” that eventually turned into a Facebook community where people would discuss cryptocurrency. Her current bio on Twitter (@bankofer- yka) reads: “paradigm shifts create prosper- ity. #sovereign #private pilot.” She’s described in court documents as a “romantic interest” of former Proud Boys leader Tarrio, who is also from Miami. What Is Flores’ Connection to Miami? Flores has been described as a “pillar” and “the godmother” of Miami’s cryptocurrency community. In 2019, she cofounded the Miami Block- chain Center alongside self-proclaimed “Bit- coin Pioneer” Nick Spanos a few blocks away from Bayfront Park in downtown Miami, which they described as an “incubator, event space and co-working space” to educate de- velopers, entrepreneurs, and investors on blockchain and cryptocurrencies. “We want Miami to be the best educated city in the world when it comes to this tech- nology,” Flores said at the center’s inception. During its grand opening, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez performed a ribbon-cutting ceremony with an oversized pair of scissors as Flores stood beside him grinning. (Google now lists the center as “permanently closed.”) Flores was also CEO of the Bitcoin Center Miami, which, as she explained, ran the blockchain center. Bitcoin Center Miami, marketed as a “prime location for teaching, training, and networking on the topics of bitcoin, crypto- currencies, digital assets,” has gone dormant on its event page. The center’s website, bitcoincenter.miami, now leads to Flores’ personal site. What Are Flores’ Links to Mayor Suarez? Aside from numerous photos dating back to 2019 of her and Suarez posing together at cryptocurrency events, Flores has been cred- ited with educating Suarez about Bitcoin and promoting Miami as a crypto-friendly city — notably one of Suarez’s more passionate mis- sions as mayor. According to a 2020 article by the crypto blog CoinCentral, Flores “worked closely with the mayor and city of Miami to put Mi- ami Blockchain on the map.” “Mayor Francis Suarez is a forward-think- ing man who agrees downtown should be a technology hub,” Flores told CoinCentral, saying that the local government has been “so supportive” of her crypto-driven mission. The mayor’s office has not responded to New Times’ request for comment via email. Flores tweeted that in 2020, the city “gave us an official proclamation,” dubbing the week of January 13 through January 20 “Mi- ami Blockchain Week,” expressly mentioning Flores’ Blockchain Center. In late December 2021, photos from Flores’ Instagram (@erykagemma_) show her speaking to audiences at Miami Art Week. One set of pictures shows Suarez gaz- ing up at Flores as she speaks before a crowd at a Miami crypto event. “Thanks @mayorofmiami for always sup- porting the local blockchain community,” she wrote in the caption. In April 2021, the mayor wished Flores a happy birthday on Twitter. [email protected] Eryka Gemma Flores during the opening of the Blockchain Center on June 14, 2019. Photo by World Red Eye | METRO | “IF YOU DON’T LIKE MY PLAN, LET ME KNOW. BUT I WANT YOU TO BE THE EXECUTOR AND BENEFITOR OF MY BRILLIANCE.”
