Tuesday, December 10, 2019

LA Area Man Charged In $722M Cryptocurrency Fraud

A Los Angeles area man--Joseph Frank Abel, of Camarillo--has been charged, along with three others, in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme that allegedly stole $722 million from investors, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to the DOJ, Abel and his co-defendants-- Matthew Brent Goettsche, Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks, and Silviu Catalin Balaci--solicited money from investors in exchange for shares of a purported cryptocurrency mining firm, BitClub Network, but ran the venture as a ponzi scheme, where it rewarded investors for recruiting new investors into the scheme. The DOJ alleges that the defendants provided false and misleading figures to BitClub investors, and were told they were receiving "bitcoin mining earnings" from its bitcoin mining pool. The DOJ said that Weeks and Abel created videos and traveled around the United States and the world to promote BitClub Network and recruit others to invest. Two other, un-named individuals were also charged but not named, because--according to the DOJ--they are still at large. It's unclear if Abel victimized any investors in Southern California.