Promoter of BitConnect Pleads Guilty in Global $2 Billion Crypto Scam

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Director and Promoter of BitConnect Pleads Guilty in Global $2 Billion Cryptocurrency Scheme

SAN DIEGO—Glenn Arcaro of Los Angeles pleaded guilty today in federal court for his participation in a massive conspiracy involving BitConnect, a cryptocurrency investment scheme, which defrauded investors from the United States and abroad of over $2 billion. The BitConnect scheme is believed to be the largest cryptocurrency fraud ever charged criminally.

As admitted in documents entered today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mitchell D. Dembin, Arcaro conspired with others to exploit investor interest in cryptocurrency by fraudulently marketing BitConnect’s proprietary coin offering and digital currency exchange as a lucrative investment.

Arcaro admitted that he earned no less than $24 million from the BitConnect fraud conspiracy, all of which, according to court documents, he must repay to investors.

Maximum penalty: Twenty years in prison, $250,000 fine or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greater; forfeiture and restitution

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/director-and-promoter-bitconnect-pleads-guilty-global-2-billion-cryptocurrency-scheme

I guess this is the proverbial "Justice has been served", adage. I still remember this one, many members here have issued warnings about it, but still many has fallen for it. And hopefully all the victims can be refunded so that this case can be close for good.

If there is a victim here from this scam, please contact the FBI at bccinvestor@fbi.gov.

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[stomachgrowls]

Director and Promoter of BitConnect Pleads Guilty in Global $2 Billion Cryptocurrency Scheme
~

I guess this is the proverbial "Justice has been served", adage. I still remember this one, many members here have issued warnings about it, but still many has fallen for it. And hopefully all the victims can be refunded so that this case can be close for good.

Justice had been served indeed and hope that other bigtime scammers would able to be traced up even though this is just one of the known scams but the rest are untraceable which do involved on multi-million scams
but this one turns out to be that obvious.

Dont expect that there would be some sort of compensations or return of funds for those who get scammed.Yes, im also one of those people who had been keep telling that Bitconnect is ponzi
but people do let themselves dragged off with the hype.

[Dave1]

^^ We can only hope that in due time those victims are going to be paid with the money they've lost in this biggest scams in crypto history.

Yeah, I already see this growing in this community, I may not be active here, but that's "too good to be true" returns? It really smells ponzi scheme from afar. And yet many members didn't listen maybe they are greedy and was blinded by all the hype and marketing of BitConnect.

[SFR10]

I guess this is the proverbial "Justice has been served", adage.

I have to respectfully disagree with that part ^{[at least not yet, until all of the other involved parties have been prosecuted]}.

And hopefully all the victims can be refunded so that this case can be close for good.

With the pace that things are moving at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another decade or two ^{[unfortunately]}.

[Lucius]

With the pace that things are moving at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another decade or two ^{[unfortunately]}.

Probably this scammer will do something similar again than the victims of this global scam will be compensated - and the sentence of a maximum of 20 years in prison is really ridiculous considering what kind of crime it is - the man did not steal $2 million, but $2 billion - it needs to be locked in a hole for life, without the internet of course.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

I guess this is the proverbial "Justice has been served", adage.

I have to respectfully disagree with that part ^{[at least not yet, until all of the other involved parties have been prosecuted]}.

And hopefully all the victims can be refunded so that this case can be close for good.

With the pace that things are moving at the moment, I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another decade or two ^{[unfortunately]}.

I agree to disagree, at least we have one who has been caught, pleaded guilty ask to pay the victims and going to jail, I think there is justice already.

@Lucius - The problem is that we don't have the proper legal framework for now. I'm not sure if we will have a new branch or at least lawyers specializing on this case. But maybe in the next 5-10 years, we might see these kind of scammers with these huge amount, getting the Madoff treatment.

[dothebeats]

I'm surprised that it took this long before they pleaded guilty. It was obvious from the get go that they weren't really doing some sort of service that will help the people, and their business model really resembled a ponzi scheme but no one believed since they are getting paid.

The next question is, would they even reimburse those who joined Bitconnect? Or are those funds forever lost? If the funds are lost, then there's still someone out there who has this. $2 billion is not a small change, and authorities need to get that amount and try to bring it back to the investors in any case.

[UserU]

Ah damn, I was expecting Carlos Matos to be featured since he's basically the "face" of it.

[cafucafucafu]

Good. Finally.

They deserve a fat sentencing after misleading all the innocent people into investing in their ponzi.

I still remember it like yesterday - people were so sure that Bitconnect were going to make them rich because of all the hype that social media has generated around it. Hopefully they only prosecute those who were actually at the top though, since some promoters were legitimately just sucked in and brainwashed.

[Dave1]

I'm surprised that it took this long before they pleaded guilty. It was obvious from the get go that they weren't really doing some sort of service that will help the people, and their business model really resembled a ponzi scheme but no one believed since they are getting paid.

The next question is, would they even reimburse those who joined Bitconnect? Or are those funds forever lost? If the funds are lost, then there's still someone out there who has this. $2 billion is not a small change, and authorities need to get that amount and try to bring it back to the investors in any case.

Doesn't matter how long will it take them to plead guilty, they probably working on a light sentence here and instead of pleading not-guilty and contest it.

They will probably find a way to liquidate the assets Glenn Arcaro, all his properties and sell it. And then the proceeds will go to the victims. But I'm not sure if they amount is even close to the money they scammed, so not sure how the law will divide it to the victims.

[Lucius]

But maybe in the next 5-10 years, we might see these kind of scammers with these huge amount, getting the Madoff treatment.

No less than that, because for me personally, such people have to be permanently isolated from society because of the possibility that they will try something similar again, and such people are very difficult to change. In addition, large prison sentences and confiscation of all property would be a clear message to everyone else what awaits them if they do anything similar.

I'm surprised that in this particular case the maximum sentence can be only 20 years in the US, which has quite severe sentences - but if in any case, the trial was in the EU, it is unlikely that the sentence would be even 10 years.

[buwaytress]

If there is a victim here from this scam, please contact the FBI at bccinvestor@fbi.gov.

I'll bet you there might be one or two people writing to that email about how they got scammed in relation to Bitcoin Cash (which initially used BCC in their marketing, before switching to BCH). That would be funny.

I'm surprised that in this particular case the maximum sentence can be only 20 years in the US, which has quite severe sentences - but if in any case, the trial was in the EU, it is unlikely that the sentence would be even 10 years.

Sadly, true. Even if he got ten years, it'll all be done and dusted in the blink of an eye, time served included, or overlapping sentences. If you even stored 10% of the paltry 26 million he admitted to, it'd still be a nice payday waiting for you after prison. White collar crime, at this scale, actually often pays, it seems.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Is he the meme guy that was shouting Bitconnect? Or this is another person, disclaimer I haven't seen the article as I got what I need to read about so I don't have to click the link for it since there's the texts that matters the most posted already. It's good that they've finally had this people get served, the people that got scammed will finally feel some sort of redemption.

[SFR10]

I agree to disagree, at least we have one who has been caught, pleaded guilty ask to pay the victims and going to jail, I think there is justice already.

You have a point, it's better than nothing.

Ah damn, I was expecting Carlos Matos to be featured since he's basically the "face" of it.

Hopefully they only prosecute those who were actually at the top though, since some promoters were legitimately just sucked in and brainwashed.

No less than that, because for me personally, such people have to be permanently isolated from society because of the possibility that they will try something similar again, and such people are very difficult to change.

I agree with Lucius's comment and speaking of "being isolated from the society" and "one of the known promoters ^{[e.g. Carlos Matos]}", if I'm recalling the details of his "last interview" correctly, basically he's still doing the same thing ^{[teaching others how and where to invest and etc... while charging ridiculous amounts]}. I do know he wasn't directly connected to Bitconnect, but IMO, he also deserves to be in jail.

Is he the meme guy that was shouting Bitconnect? Or this is another person,

No, refer to "UserU's" post.

[Lucius]

Sadly, true. Even if he got ten years, it'll all be done and dusted in the blink of an eye, time served included, or overlapping sentences. If you even stored 10% of the paltry 26 million he admitted to, it'd still be a nice payday waiting for you after prison. White collar crime, at this scale, actually often pays, it seems.

It seems to me that this is something like a calculated crime that has two possible outcomes:

- the first is to succeed in your intention and never be caught, which still requires a certain amount of intelligence (new identity, superior money laundering scheme, citizenship in a state that does not extradite its citizens).

- the second is to be caught anyway, then to admit guilt and settle with the authorities - you return more than 90% of the money and get the minimum sentence, and after prison, you have enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life. I don't know how it is in other countries, but usually, a prisoner is released after serving 2/3 of the sentence, if he did not cause problems in prison. In addition, there are special annual pardons by the president, and we all know that those who have the money can easily buy such pardons - of course through a friend who will donate in the next election campaign.

In the end, however, the biggest blame lies with those who should pass stricter laws and eventually enforce them - rather than encourage people to engage in online scams, as if to tell them it's much better than robbing banks, post offices, and gas stations, and in fact, it is basically the same thing that is punished completely differently.

[teosanru]

I hope this serves as a landmark judgment and a beginning of decisions against cryptocurrency scamsters. There were hundreds of MLM based scams in the cryptocurrencies space even before bitconnect and there have been a lot of scams even after that but not many have been held or charged for any major scam, they end up saving themselves due to legal ambiguity of the cryptospace and most of them being located in Tax Heavens or Off-Shore Islands where law enforcement really isn't that strong, they keep on hiding until the heat of the issue cools off and then roam around freely, Bitconnect owner only got caught due to the huge amount involved in the scam.

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

Is he the meme guy that was shouting Bitconnect? Or this is another person,

No, refer to "UserU's" post.

Thank you, I should probably stop posting drunk so I can read all of the thread. I too was expecting Carlos Matos to be the one, @UserU is right, he's like the face of that scam with the energy that he gave to promote it at that time.

[Kemarit]

I hope this serves as a landmark judgment and a beginning of decisions against cryptocurrency scamsters. There were hundreds of MLM based scams in the cryptocurrencies space even before bitconnect and there have been a lot of scams even after that but not many have been held or charged for any major scam, they end up saving themselves due to legal ambiguity of the cryptospace and most of them being located in Tax Heavens or Off-Shore Islands where law enforcement really isn't that strong, they keep on hiding until the heat of the issue cools off and then roam around freely, Bitconnect owner only got caught due to the huge amount involved in the scam.

Yeah, maybe the government really work this ass off to capture him and put him to jail because of the huge amount they've scammed people. I don't think though that there are tax haven or off shore islands that are not within reached by the US. And 3 years ago, the bank secrecy ends:

ZURICH (Reuters) - The era of mystery-cloaked numbered Swiss bank accounts has officially come to a close as Switzerland, the world’s biggest center for managing offshore wealth, began automatically sharing client data with tax authorities in dozens of other countries.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-swiss-secrecy-idUSKCN1MF13O

So we might saw another scams in the 2017-2018 era that involved huge amount might be chase and track by the US authorities.

[zanezane]

I hope this serves as a landmark judgment and a beginning of decisions against cryptocurrency scamsters. There were hundreds of MLM based scams in the cryptocurrencies space even before bitconnect and there have been a lot of scams even after that but not many have been held or charged for any major scam, they end up saving themselves due to legal ambiguity of the cryptospace and most of them being located in Tax Heavens or Off-Shore Islands where law enforcement really isn't that strong, they keep on hiding until the heat of the issue cools off and then roam around freely, Bitconnect owner only got caught due to the huge amount involved in the scam.

Good thing that they're reduced to almost zero now, I am happy that people have learned after Bitconnect and One Coin, bitcoin or crypto based MLM are becoming unpopular. Also, good thing that this people are put to justice because they really need to set an example.

[Gozie51]

Yes I remember BitConnect scheme when I was still new in the forum and at a point I felt I should have understood cryptocurrency to invest in the scheme because early investors then got money on it but alas I started being grateful that I didn't invest when it started stories. It is nice to see them cough our the scam money of investing public for the sake of justice.