A man was convicted for plundering one cryptocurrency fund to cover another. He duped investors by claiming that his algorithm produced arbitrage profits.
Australian man, Stefan He Qin, 24was convicted of a cryptocurrency scam on 04 Feb 2020. He pleaded guilty to securities fraud for cheating investors of over US$90 million by squandering money they spent on his cryptocurrency fund. He used a trading algorithm to take advantage of price differences for a number of cryptocurrencies.
According to authorities, the offender entered the plea to a single count of the fraud charge in Manhattan federal court. Authorities further told that the fraud occurred from 2017 to 2020 as Qin operated the fund titled Virgil Sigma.
It is worth mentioning that every now and then millions of cryptocurrency investors are scammed out of massive sums of real money. Both old-fashioned and new-technology tactics are used by criminals to swindle their marks in schemes based on digital currencies exchanged through online databases.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a release that the convict had drained almost all of the assets from the $90 million cryptocurrency fund he owned. He had stolen the investors’ money, spent it on indulgences and speculative personal investments. All this time he had been lying to the investors about the performance of the fund and what he had done with their money.
She further added that Qin even tried to steal money from another fund he controlled. He did this to meet the redemption demands of the defrauded investors in the former fund.
Now that his entire scheme has been revealed, and he has been convicted, he awaits sentencing for his brazen thievery.
According to Prosecutors Qin cheated dozens of investors, including many in the United States.
As per the Prosecutors, the fraud was revealed last summer when Qin was having difficulty meeting redemption requests from investors. Qin shall face up to 20 years in prison at a May 20 sentencing.
Attorneys for Qin, Sean Hecker, and Shawn Crowley said in a statement that their client had accepted full responsibility for his actions. They also added that in was committed to doing what he could to make amends.