Bitcoin Forum

I heard BitConnect Promoters got put into a Lawsuit and the SEC charged them. Did they pay any money to the victims or pay any fines etc?

The question is, did they? I have seen that Carlos guy trolling around with youtube videos and in social media, so apparently he isn't in jail at all.

There's also many youtubers that made a killing promoting this ponzi scheme with affiliate links, with millions of views on their channels, and they still have their channels up and going.

So unless they are waiting for court, nothing happened. The victims will most likely never see their coins again, however they leased the most valuable lesson: trust only Bitcoin.

I put in $40,000 into a ponzi platform similar to BitConnect. Do you think I can sue my promoter or get him charged? I live in Australia.

MOST IMPORTANTLY - Is it even worth going after him you think if he was just using their referral program?

The lawsuit is still ongoing. Silver miller handles it and is still on their "Active cases" (https://www.silvermillerlaw.com/active-cases/)

And pretty sure there would be news of the outcome. For now, the latest is [feb 2019]FBI Seeking Potential Victims of BitConnect to Assist Investigation (https://www.coindesk.com/fbi-seeking-potential-victims-of-bitconnect-to-assist-investigation)

You would surely cost up some money even more. The question is that why did you invest into a project similar to Bitconnect?
$40k is big but wont really be that much if you tend to fight out but still you can make some actions through legal means on your place.
This is the hardest part when you are really being victimized online because due to anonymity and irreversible transactions you cant really easily
sue them out incase problem arises.

What's this scam platform you invested? is this before bitconnect or after that? why put such amount with similar to bitconnect.

That referral would probably isn't aware too that it is a scam and only you can answer your own question, do you think it's worth of your time and money including the process?

From what I've heard in the past, there were a bunch of outspoken youtubers that were put into the class action lawsuit as defendants.

The only one that I've heard updates about though is Trevon James, and apparently he didn't even lodge a response to the lawsuit which led to a default being entered against him (https://behindmlm.com/companies/bitconnect/default-entered-against-trevon-james-in-bitconnect-class-action/).

Whether or not any sum has been reimbursed or not I don't know, but i'd expect that if any funds were to be reimbursed there would be at least some sort of media coverage around it. There has been virtually no updates that is visible for months now regarding the situation. Plus, I don't even think that this is relevant to you given that you said you live in Australia your other thread.

Also, I don't think that the SEC has charged them, though there has been an investigation (https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/bitconnect-promoter-trevon-james-enters-default-in-class-action-suit/):

I am one of its early investors and have been scammed but not that big amount compared to those who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, mine was only $200 I even participated in their bounty campaign back then because they are paying with Bitcoin, this has become a big lesson for me, if it's too good to be true, you better think twice.

People who are victimized should come out and help the FBI prosecutes and win the case, FBI victory is a victory for a fake and ponzi scheme in the cryptocurrency, now we know that Ponzi Scheme has no place in the community I lost $200 but those who invested thousands of dollars and never gain should help prosecutors.

It's difficult to this, because what if your promoter will say he/she also have promoter? This can be a long process, because what if your promoter also a victim by another promoter?
What I saw in Bitconnect is something like MLM, you have your network and their commission is quite huge, you make a lot of downlines, you can make a lot of money also. I remember when I was a newbie in crypto before when I started on something HYIP, since I am a newbie, I don't have money to invest in, what I do is I invite people, so my commission per invite will be used to invest on the platform.

I've never heard of anyone pay a fine and just walk away with fraud, if they were charged with it.

But no, I don't think that anyone has paid their victims back. There are a bunch of them including Craig Grant, Trevon James etc. among others that have deleted their bitconnect content altogether, probably meaning that they are concerned at least to a degree about this ongoing lawsuit.

But some of them are still active on Youtube, posting new vids or whatnot, with no signs that they've been ordered to pay anything. I remember Trevon even continuing to shill for the scam even after they collapsed.

I think it's still a grey area given that they are only affiliates, and not running the scheme. But the lawsuit should be interesting as it unfolds, perhaps some of their assets will be seized to reimburse investors, but that would be the best case scenario and imo, quite unlikely.

Do you have a link for this, that's very interesting to see, because we'll find out if affiliate is also liable and an accessories to the case, because some of these affiliates for all we know are also victim, remember Bitconnect is implementing recruitment rewards, that means all bitconnect investors can recruit new investors.

On general sense you cant include those affiliates and tracking it out wont really be that simple.Only the main man would really need to face up the law.

Regarding on this question "Did they pay any money to the victims or pay any fines etc?" - The lawsuit is still on progress and theres still no updates or words regarding compensations.

if a decision was issued stating they had to pay fines, i'm assuming they would or already have filed for bankruptcy, so it wouldn't mean much to people that were scammed, as you can't be forced to pay if you have no resources.

wonder how it will go if the refund will happen if it is the fiat price at the time or crypto refunds.

It wont clear him but the company but i think the same, hes broke on paper.

Validate first his ranking in the affiliate system, some marketers are part of the team, and most referral based program had a hierarchy, where they first announce it to their leaders and they blow it to their network, some leaders are advisors of the project, so better check, you don't wanna sue a guy who just made 5% of the cut to your investment and losses double of the amount you've invested.

Considering how big a predecessor called OneCoin got, and how long it's taken for international jurisdictions to take on their organisers, I think we're only seeing the initial beginnings of a long, multi-year, litigation process. As others have pointed out, the guys behind them aren't in hiding yet (unlike the OneCoin bosses) so that's the clearest sign that class action has not yet resulted in proper full blown investigations.

The important thing now is for those affected to get behind the class action and be prepared to dig in.

I remember that Onecoin thing which i have seen on facebook and one of those members trying out to convince me to invest which i do already spot out that this coin isnt really a crypto at all.Unlike on Bitconnect which do have blockchain unlike this Onecoin thingy but overall these both things are total fraud. Losing or running out investors money and about investigations it would be just normal
that these things would take years.

I'd like this case to finish with all the victims compensated and members of Bitconnect behind bars, this is a big victory for Cryptocurrency, no one can use the blockchain technology and attach it to cryptocurrency anymore if the  victims win the case, Bitconnectcoin has huge money I'm sure they will hire top-notch lawyers to prolong the case.

The operators of the said scam are still free roaming up to this day, and only a few of them have been nabbed by the government and law enforcement. I have few friends who have invested in the said scam who are still not reimbursed up to this day, and I don't think they would ever be reimbursed for the money they have put on in on the now-defunct company/organization/whatever, and I doubt that people who are involved on the said ponzi scheme will ever face serious jail time.


It will take years and years, just like what happened with Mt. Gox, though I don't think people who are behind the said scheme will ever get caught easily (well some of them are roaming around the interwebs and in the real world still.)

I'm not so sure if they will be able to pay the victims since the lawsuit is still ongoing. And yes, the FBI is actually reaching for all of the victims of bitconnect to file a claim of scam. Bitconnect closed down last January 18 because of the security regulators. The promoters actually had no idea with the platform's eligibility as well so the promoters are out of it because they were also part of the victims.

Back in March 2018, Trevon James, former BitConnect investor, and promoter, said that the FBI was investigating the case and that he had spoken to the agency about the exchange and his involvement with the project. “I’m glad that I don’t know anything, so that means there’s no proof that I knew anything,” James commented at the time. In August 2018, the Criminal Investigation Department of the Indian state of Gujarat police arrested former BitConnect India head Divyesh Darji after receiving an alert from the country’s immigration agency.

Further explanation sees this link, https://­www.coindesk.com/­fbi-seeking-potential­-victims-of-bitconne­ct-to-assist-investi­gation.

They will eventually pay their victims and it's only a matter of time, the promoters have huge money to pay top lawyers to defend them, and these lawyers are lucky because their clients will have to spend millions of people to pay them to prolong conviction.

It's not worth it, but check if he is also an investor, maybe he is also scammed by that company, and maybe he used the referral rewards to invest in the company, investigate first, before taking action against him, but you should also sue the program because he is the one that really scammed you.

The thing is with lawsuits involving around promoters who are users themselves and aren't directly affiliated to the scam aren't that strong cases. One of the strongest defense they can do is they are also victims of the scam as well as unknowingly have promoted the scam itself. For previous scams who have exited the easiest people who often get caught are the ones who have introduced it to you not the mastermind itself, so I really doubt that they'll recover such damages from a person who isn't even affiliated to Bitconnect.

You can actually sue the people behind the scam and those who promoted it and made good money a referral agents. I think this is in the law here in my country and also with other countries. However, it can be a big hassle identifying these people and if ever you have the money for the case why not directly charge the principal actors of the scam. As for BitConnect, big hitting promoters remains to be free and no substantial cases are brought against them. The lesson is that we must always be careful with any program that we put our money to especially if one is planning to invest big.