Bitconnect Victims Receive Over $17 Million in Refund from Ponzi Scheme –

More than $17 million in restitution will be distributed among investors in the Bitconnect pyramid scheme in accordance with a court order in the United States. The infamous crypto investment scheme has defrauded thousands of people around the world.

Bitconnect investors from dozens of countries will be paid back millions of US dollars

Around 800 victims from more than 40 countries who lost money through Bitconnect will be reimbursed a total of over $17 million in compensation, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday, citing an order from a federal district court in San Diego. The large-scale crypto investment scheme has defrauded thousands of investors worldwide.

The verdict comes after Bitconnect's US-based top promoter, 44-year-old Glenn Arcaro, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on September 16, 2021. He admitted to marketing Bitconnect's initial coin offering and digital currency exchange as a lucrative investment with the aim of exploiting investor interest in cryptocurrencies.

Arcaro and his co-conspirators misled investors about Bitconnect's "Lending Program" and its purportedly proprietary "Bitconnect Trading Bot" and "Volatility Software" technologies, which, they claimed, could provide guaranteed returns on investors' money used to trade on crypto exchange markets.

"In reality, however, Bitconnect operated a textbook pyramid scheme by paying early Bitconnect investors with money from later investors. Arcaro and his co-conspirators ensured that up to 15% of the money invested in Bitconnect went directly into a slush fund that was used for the benefit of the owner and promoters," the DOJ stated.

It was Glenn Arcaro, a Los Angeles resident sentenced to 38 months in US federal prison in September 2022. He admitted to making at least $24 million from the fraud. At the time, the DOJ indicated that all of this money would be returned to investors or forfeited to the government. In November of the previous year, the Ministry of Justice offered for sale Crypto assets worth $56 million seized from Bitconnect.

The founder of the crypto pyramid was Indian citizen Satish Kumbhani accused on February 25, 2022 for his key role in organizing the $3.4 billion fraud scheme. In August police in India started an investigation into Bitconnect and a search for its mastermind. If convicted in the USA, he faces a maximum of 70 years in prison.

Do you think Bitconnect investors will receive further compensation for their losses from the Ponzi scheme? Tell us in the comments section below.

Lubomir Tassev

Lubomir Tassev is a journalist from tech-savvy Eastern Europe who likes Hitchens' quote: "Being a writer is what I am, not what I do." In addition to crypto, blockchain and fintech, international politics and economics are two other sources of inspiration.

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