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BitConnect founder accused of Ponzi scheme has vanished

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Satish Kumbhani, the founder of BitConnect, has gone missing a week after being charged in a $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme that allegedly deceived investors in the United States.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) indicted Kumbhani, an Indian citizen, with criminal charges last week. In September 2021, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a separate lawsuit against Kumbhani, alleging that he fraudulently obtained more than $2 billion for BitConnect. The issue currently is that Kumbhani is no where to be found.

SEC

Officials stated in a legal filing on Monday that Kumbhani has most likely left India and that his whereabouts are uncertain. This comes after the SEC learned in October 2021 that Kumbhani had likely moved from India to an unfamiliar address in another country.

Extension plea in BitConnect’s founder missing case

Richard G. Primoff, senior trial counsel in the filing has requested an extension until May 30 from U.S. District Judge John Koeltl.

Primoff also stated that the Commission has been in contact with the country’s banking regulatory agencies since November in an effort to track out Kumbhani’s address. At this time, however, Kumbhani’s whereabouts are unclear, and the Commission is unable to say when, if ever, its attempts to identify him will be successful. He further stated,

“The Commission did not know the whereabouts of Kumbhani, an Indian citizen, at the time it filed this action, and BitConnect is an unincorporated entity the Commission must serve through its manager, Kumbhani.”

BitConnect, which was founded in 2016, was one of the biggest and most popular projects in the mid-2017 initial coin offering (ICO) craze, raising billions of dollars from international investors for a protocol that allegedly paid out 10% in interest earnings via its BCC token to investors, with users who “referred” other investors receiving even more benefits.

However, platform administrators closed BitConnect’s earning platform on January 16, 2018, when the company’s product came under growing scrutiny from legislators and investors. In the days following the platform’s collapse, BCC prices plunged to below $1 from a prior peak of about $500.

Such circumstances sparked a legal struggle in the United States to bring BitConnect’s founders to justice, with Kumbhani and American citizen Glenn Arcaro at the heart of the plan. On 1 September 2021, Arcaro pleaded guilty to criminal counts, comprising conspiracy to commit wire fraud and criminal forfeiture.

BitConnect promoters face a lawsuit by SEC following a $2 billion crypto scam

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The Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] of the United States has reportedly hit five people part of the BitConnect Ponzi scheme with a lawsuit.

The crypto-verse isn’t new to scams and hacks. However, the surge in the price of all the assets paved the way to more scammy projects that further led to several losing out on investments. While officials had shot down a crypto Ponzi scheme, BitConnect back in 2018, news pertaining to the platform has once again started to surface.

BitConnect makes headlines, once again

A platform started out in 2016 and urged customers to loan their cryptocurrency to garner massive returns. While BitConnect pocketed significant gains of about $2 billion, the FBI intervened in 2019 and looked for the victims of this scam. As this case persists, the SEC went on to file a lawsuit against five people, namely, Trevon Brown, Craig Grant, Ryan Maasen, and Michael Noble for promoting the Ponzi scheme.

The aforementioned individuals had reportedly formulated YouTube videos in order to recruit more people to be a part of the sham. Since the entire scheme was a multi-referral business, these promoters went on to earn a commission for bringing in more people.

Furthermore, this lawsuit was filed by the SEC in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York accusing all five individuals of aiding the program.

Lara Shalov Mehraban, Associate Regional Director of SEC’s New York Regional Office, addressed the same in SEC’s recent press release and stated,

“We allege that these defendants unlawfully sold unregistered digital asset securities by actively promoting the BitConnect lending program to retail investors. We will seek to hold accountable those who illegally profit by capitalizing on the public’s interest in digital assets.”

While this platform hasn’t been functioning for a while now, the SEC hopes to garner  “injunctive relief, disgorgement plus interest, and civil penalties” through its latest lawsuit.

Cryptocurrency fraud at an all-time high?

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Yet another cryptocurrency fraud has come to light. The US Department of Justice reported Friday, 6 May 2022, that Mining Capital Coin CEO and founder Luiz Capuci Jr. was charged with reportedly masterminding a $62 million global investment fraud scheme using his putative crypto mining and investment platform.

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Mining Capital Coin CEO and founder Luiz Capuci Jr.

However, after being charged with a slew of offenses including wire fraud, money laundering, and securities fraud, Capuci faces a maximum jail sentence of 45 years.

Capuci and co-conspirators are accused of defrauding investors of $62 million by the US authorities. Mining Capital Coin claimed to have invested in cryptocurrency mining and trading, but that was not the case. He reassured investors that the company had a large network of mining operations that could deliver consistent profits.

Capuci also pitched investors on the company’s trading bots, stating that they were created by leading programmers from around the world.

According to federal authorities, Mining Capital Coin was a regular pyramid scheme. The cash collected from investors was never invested in any of the aforementioned projects. Capuci, according to federal authorities, transferred the stolen monies to his bitcoin wallets without fulfilling the company’s pledges.

According to Kenneth Polite Jr., associate attorney general for the criminal division of the United States Department of Justice, unlawful cryptocurrency schemes damage the young industry, and the agency is dedicated to combating financial crime.

The art of scamming cryptocurrency or vulnerability of being scammed?

Lack of regulation, rapidity of transactions, irreversibility of trades, and disguised identities are all positive qualities of the crypto world, according to the hype. Crypto fanatics believe that bypassing banks, regulators, and rules is the only way to improve finance. When it comes to your assets, however, faster and looser isn’t necessarily better. It’s a surefire way to have your money stolen from you.

The CEO of an unnamed South Korean bitcoin exchange was arrested last week on suspicion of spying for North Korea. Satish Kumbhani, the co-founder of BitConnect, was indicted by a grand jury in late February on several charges.

Crypto is all about moving money rapidly. It’s also at the heart of any well-planned fraud scheme. Cryptocurrency can also be moved swiftly and washed to prevent notice once obtained.

DigiByte founder calls out Binance US for considering Tron listing

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The cryptocurrency industry has been a place of various issues and discussions ever since its inception and that trend does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. Users have always been given the freedom to voice their concerns as well as provide remedies to make it better. The latest tweet, however, comes from a cryptocurrency professional who went all out in attacking one of its biggest competitors, Tron.

In a recent tweet, Jared Tate, the Founder of DigiByte Coin, stated that American regulators should not allow Binance America to function in the United States. The DigiByte official added that even if Binance America wanted to operate, it should do so keeping in mind the standard of the industry. His angry tweet came on the back of Justin Sun, the CEO of Tron Foundation, informing users that:

“#TRON(#TRX) is in the next batch of digital assets that are going through the evaluation for listing on http://Binance.US. @BinanceAmerica is a reliable & inclusive marketplace for everyday American users that discovers projects with true utility.”

Tate’s accusations on China started after the world’s most populous country had stated that it would consider venturing into the field of blockchain technology. This message was also carried by Chinese premier Xi Jinping as well as officials from the central bank of China.

Jared Tate’s tweet was also supported by other members of the cryptocurrency community with Block Capital Group lambasting Tron by tweeting:

“Get these guys out of crypto, can’t believe they went mainstream, they hold about the same standing as bitconnect in this space if you ask me.”

By December 10, Binance US had stated that apart from TRX, the CZ led organisation will also add tokens such as OMG, ONT, XEM and XTZ. Despite the positive response from the community, some members pointed out Tron’s shortcomings like the missed lunch with Warren Buffett.

But partners like 888Tron were happy that Tron was venturing into space because of the number of gambling users in the United States. The launch on a mainstream cryptocurrency exchange was seen as the boost required to propel the cryptocurrency and its price forward.

Usually, when such an announcement becomes public, it elevates the price of the coin, but the 13th placed Tron still saw troughs in the price charts. At press time, TRX was trading for $0.014 with a total market cap of $938.116 million. The cryptocurrency held a 24-hour market volume of $935.312 million after a 1.04 percent drop in the 24-hour time frame.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market conditions and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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Bitcoin and other major cryptos see evident disparities in current and all-time high values

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The cryptocurrency market has certainly seen its ups and downs with price surges contributing to most of the positive developments. During the initial hype days, a lot of cryptocurrency projects had received immense support that eventually resulted in massive pricing. As soon as the original fuzz and hype died, a majority of the projects fell apart while major cryptocurrencies witnessed a fall in their values.

At the time of writing, many of the digital assets were struggling to climb the bullish ladder and compared to the all-time highs; they still have a long way to go. BitConnect was obviously the most significant loser amongst the initial cryptocurrency projects with the Carlos Matos founded company tanking last year.

The crash came after reports flooded in that BitConnect was scamming its users and token holders with a significant share losing extensive investment holdings. Since then, the BitConnect token has fallen by a complete 100 per cent and no longer exists on charts such as CoinMarketCap.

The cryptocurrency with the second most considerable fall was ICON [ICX] which traded at $0.46 during its all-time high. Right now, however, the cryptocurrency was worth $0.12, a 99 percent fall in its market price. The cryptocurrency also held a total market cap of $64.978 million and a 24-hour market volume of $7.205 million.

Next in line was the Bitcoin Gold, a proposed spinoff from Bitcoin which was built to tackle the “shortcomings” of the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Alejandro Regojo was responsible for the Bitcoin Gold forking that occurred on October 23, 2017, a few weeks before Bitcoin rocketed towards the $20,000 mark.

BTG had made a name for itself when it gained in value to settle at $500.13 after which had a period of massive fluctuations. Post the Bitcoin ATH time period; there was no question about BTG’s impending price fall, which culminated in the cryptocurrency falling to its current low of $5.75. The 99 percent price drop was also perpetuated by its market cap taking a hit, currently holding at $100.68 million.

Cryptocurrencies like NEO, Tron and Bitcoin Cash had fallen by 95 percent from their peaks, and these assets were now in a battle against the bear. While Bitcoin has been getting a lot of hate from the public recently, many failed to realise that it was holding much stronger on the charts.

Compared to the 80-90 percent prevalent among major cryptocurrencies, BTC had only fallen by 62 percent from its ATH. It is not surprising as its ATH was etched into crypto history when the asset’s value shot to $19,700 in December 2018. At press time, Bitcoin was trading for $7351.41 and held a reduced market cap of $133.014 billion.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market conditions and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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Ripple Created XRP or Discovered it? Crypto Community Criticizing Company’s Claim

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Ripple and XRP have been a controversial topic for quite along. While few members of the crypto community criticized XRP as a centralized cryptocurrency, Ripple’s official, on the other hand, elaborate XRP as the decentralized cryptocurrency runs independently on XRP ledger.

Did Ripple Create XRP or Discover it?

The concerning point here is that Ripple is a blockchain payment firm that offers payment products based on blockchain technology. Alongside these products, Ripple is also known as the parent company of XRP, the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Undeniably, when XRP bag holders backlashed Ripple for selling a lot of XRP – which they claim – has drastically reduced the price of the token, Ripple’s CEO and other key officials refute the claim.

In fact, they elaborated that Ripple and XRP are two different entities, while Ripple is a company, XRP is a decentralized cryptocurrency. Moreover, they also stated that the XRP cryptocurrency still exists even if Ripple, the company disappears.

With all these controversial comments since so far, Nic Carter who is the co-founder of Coinmetrics and a partner at Castle Island Ventures shared a series of thread, condemning Ripple. He said;

For the record, these psychopaths are still literally and without a shred of irony claiming that they “discovered” XRP as opposed to having created it.

He also mentioned the comment of Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse who in an interview with Fortune Magazine compared XRP with Oil (though he compared it in the context of considering XRP as security would be wrong). It’s worth noting that during an interview when Brad doubted Facebook’s approach of launching Libra until 2022, he also shared his views on XRP ledger. He said;

One really important distinction is, the XRP ledger existed before Ripple the company. Certainly, we are an interested party in the success of the XRP Ledger, for sure- we own a lot of XRP. But its’ a little bit like saying, Exxon owns a lot of oil. That doesn’t make oil security.

XRP Community Defending Ripple

As Nic Carter’s tweets appear to be contrasting Ripple and the XRP community, it obviously captured the attention of the XRP army. However, as a response to a community’s comment that asked his view representing Ripple like Bitconnect, a Ponzi scheme which became popular in 2017, Nic Carter strongly urged that “it’s not “like” that; it is that.” He further said;

Ripple is no more or less useful than BCC. They just have better marketing.

On the other side of the matter, Tiffany Hayden who is the prominent XRP community member defended XRP, saying;

Moreover, she also quoted a tweet that Ripple CTO David Schwartz wrote about the existence of Bitcoin Cash. As David said he had Bitcoin cash balances that were transferred to him in 2015 however, in contrast, the token came into existence in 2017. In her continuous tweet, she explains her stance of how XRP has emerged;

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market conditions and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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Binance CEO’s ‘earn while you sleep’ tweet blooms into Binance Lending

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Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been at the forefront of changes in the cryptocurrency space, be it including upgrades or by providing new opportunities for investors int eh space. Changpeng Zhao, the Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of Binance has been an active member of the digital asset industry, and his latest tweet had riled up the crypto Twitter space.

His tweet read:

“Would you like to earn #crypto while you sleep?

Keep an eye on @binance today.”

Although there were many speculations as to what the update will be, Binance soon announced what the suspense build-up was for. The organization revealed that the company will now launch its much-awaited lending platform with initial BNB and Tether lending products. CZ had stated:

“Binance Lending is simple and intuitive to use. Users can subscribe to any lending product and earn interest, it’s as easy as that. The interest rate for each product is guaranteed, so your crypto balance will always grow, regardless of how the market moves.”

The company informed users that the lending products would become available for Binance Coin and Tether on a subscription basis from 6:00 UTC August 28th to 12:00 UTC on August 29th. Lending on Binance will mainly go the margin borrowers who pay the interest.

The CEO made it a point to emphasize on the point that Binance trading was very different from other guaranteed-return schemes in a way that the company does not have to look for other places to invest in. The annual rate for the first BNB product was placed at 15 percent, a caveat that had caught the eye of many investors.

Binance also claims that with the launch of the lending platform, the organization will have the availability of funds to led to margin traders, which in turn may increase the current margin limits. The lending platform will have annualized interest rates for upcoming phases that will be adjusted based on the market reception of the first phase of lending.

Supporters of Binance have been quite vocal about the launch of the new platform, and many are out to dissuade the naysayers. One supporter, Degen Spartan, took to Twitter to comment:

“everyone calling the binance lending the new bitconnect lmao

get the hell out of my way and don’t steal my allocation for maximum lots

as if 500 bnb is a lot of capital to risk to earn 15%

wot else u gonna do with it mate”

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Never miss our daily cryptocurrency news, price analysis, tips, and stories. Join us on Telegram | Twitter or subscribe to our weekly Newsletter.