Four BitConnect promoters agree to pay millions of dollars in fines to the SEC to avoid criminal prosecution

The US Securities and Exchange Commission is approaching a comparison with four people with US addresses who are accused of promoting the infamous BitConnect Ponzi program.

The heyday of BitConnect | Photo of a promotional conference in Indonesia

According to the Law360, the terms of the settlement are currently awaiting final approval by Judge John Koeltl. The judge found that while the terms of the agreement are now in effect, minor corrections need to be made to ensure that they are “carefully correct”.

The settlements included a fine of more than $ 3 million against Joshua Heppensen of Massachusetts and $ 576,000 from his wife Laura Mascola, $ 526,000 from Ryan Maasen of Oklahoma, and an unspecified amount from Michael Noble who only is located in California.

The SEC filed a lawsuit against six of the broadcasters in May this year, alleging they sold unregistered securities in the United States, including promoting BitConnect’s lending platform in videos like authentication. The other two defendants – Trevon Brown from South Carolina and Craig Grant from Florida – have yet to agree to the settlement terms with the SEC.

The Law360 report notes that in 2017, BitConnect lured investors with promises of “risk-free” returns, tricking them into pledging Bitcoin as collateral so they could borrow and trade BitConnect Coin (BCC).

On January 4, BitConnect unexpectedly received an urgent injunction along with allegations that BitConnect was involved in fraudulent and fraudulent investment transactions issued by the Texas Securities Commission. BitConnect’s website then continuously reported on maintenance and system upgrades before issuing a notice on Jan. 17 to cease lending, coupled with the “unstoppable” decline in the crypto market, which caused extreme confusion for investors.

Coincidentally, the day BitConnect closed was also the time the crypto market peaked and then a tough crypto winter began that lasted more than 2 years.

After BitConnect was exposed, people were shocked to realize that the organization coined term “high-yield investment program” was actually just a scam that promised high returns from the model. Invest by paying previous investors with the amount invested by new investors.

With a loan program based implementation and a focus on making big profits as quickly as possible, BitConnect attracted many investors around the world before accepting money from runaway investors. The closure of the internal stock exchange on January 17th also made it impossible for former investors to withdraw their money and was completely empty.

Following the investigation, the SEC reported that BitConnect had committed fraud in many areas, including loan and interest programs. “BitConnect does not knowingly disclose any financial information and the amounts to be paid to investors when purchasing BCC in the BitConnect QT wallet are linked to an interest rate of more than 120% per year.”

BitConnect was identified as one of the largest Ponzi schemes in the crypto space at the time, after tens of thousands of investors around the world, many of whom were from Synthetic Team, defrauded around $ 2.5 billion.

The 53-year-old Australian BitConnect promoter John Louis Anthony Bigatton faces six charges with sentences ranging from two to ten years for his role in this infamous Ponzi scheme in Australia.

Authorities are also expected to investigate the disappearance of his wife, who disappeared in March 2018. There are many speculations that he killed his wife to enjoy the money.

Thach Sanh

According to Cointelegraph

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