A federal grand jury in San Diego charged the founder of a cryptocurrency startup Friday in a broad indictment that claims he cheated investors of more than $2.4 billion in a Ponzi scam.
Prosecutors say the fraud is the largest of its sort ever prosecuted criminally.
Satish Kumbhani, 36, of Hemal in Gujarat, India, swindled investors regarding BitConnect’s “Lending Program,” according to court filings.
Based on the indictment, Kumbhani founded BitConnect in 2016 as a “classic Ponzi scam.” he US Department of Justice said the exchange reached a peak market valuation of $3.4 billion.
Prosecutors allege that BitConnect’s proprietary technology made misleading promises about returns based on phony “volatility software” that monitored bitcoin exchange markets.
Related Article | Russia Said SWIFT Ban Could Be Tantamount To A Declaration Of War
Another Major Ponzi Scam
According to court filings, the program was allegedly created to trade automatically and successfully by buying and selling Bitcoin’s volatility.
However, a large portion of…
