The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against the founder of crypto pyramid BitConnect for conducting a fraudulent and unregistered placement of securities valued at $2 billion.
According to the release, the regulator wants a jury trial for BitConnect, its founder Satish Kumbhani, promoter Glenn Arcaro and Future Money Ltd. According to the SEC, they organized a fraudulent scheme of 325,000 Bitcoins ($2 billion at the time and $15 billion at today's exchange rate). The SEC also claims BitConnect lured investors with inaccurate claims of up to 40% monthly revenue with its "software volatility trading robot" that did not actually exist.
Earlier this year, the SEC already sued five of the participants in the scheme and secured the recovery of $12 million from two of them. According to the regulator, Arcaro was in charge of promoting BitConnect. The latest lawsuit states:
"Arcaro and his promoters (none of whom were registered with the Commission as a broker-dealer or affiliated with a registered broker-dealer) promoted a potentially high-yield investment in a loan program for retail investors through referral-style videos they posted on YouTube, sometimes multiple times a day, with referral links to the loan program."
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Kumbhani's LinkedIn page still says that Kumbhani works at BitConnect and "educates people about cryptocurrency all around the world" on behalf of the "fast-growing Bitcoin and cryptocurrency communities."