The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued a pastor, accusing him of promoting a $6 million crypto Ponzi scheme to 1,500 people, including some who attended his church in Washington state.

The CFTC said on Dec. 10 that it filed a complaint against Francier Obando Pinillo for fraud and misappropriation as part of what it claimed was a multilevel marketing scheme.

In a Dec. 9 complaint to a Spokane federal court, the CFTC alleged that Pinillo, a pastor at a Spanish church in Pasco, Washington, claimed to his congregants and others through social media that he operated a trading platform that rewarded users through “high-performance” crypto trading. 

CFTC accuses pastor of shilling $6M crypto Ponzi to congregants image 0

Source: CFTC

The regulator alleged that from Nov. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2023, Pinillo claimed to be the CEO of Solanofi, Solano Partners Ltd. and Solano Capital Investments, which he said had developed a “Solano ecosystem” in which he traded Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ether ( ETH ), Tether ( USDT ) and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients.

The CFTC said Pinillo promised customers they’d get monthly profits of up to 34.9% through Solanofi, which they were told used a bot and other software for crypto trading.

A staking service for Bitcoin, Ether, Solana ( SOL ), USDT and Dogecoin ( DOGE ) was also offered through a service known as Solanofi 2.0 that “guaranteed profits to customers,” according to the complaint.

As part of the scheme alleged by the CFTC, users were shown an online dashboard that displayed purported account statements and offered a 15% referral fee to encourage others to join.

CFTC accuses pastor of shilling $6M crypto Ponzi to congregants image 1

The CFTC alleged that no trading or staking service existed as promised. Source: CFTC

“These representations and account statements were false,” the CFTC said in its complaint.

“There was no automated computer trading program, there were no customer accounts, there was not trading taking place or profits generated, and Defendant was misappropriating all digital and fiat assets customers transferred,” it added. 

The CFTC alleged that “unsophisticated customers” with little to no experience in digital asset transactions, commodity interest trading, or staking digital assets were targeted. 

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“Defendant’s solicitations were almost exclusively in Spanish, which permitted him to abuse his position of trust as a pastor,” the CFTC wrote. 

The regulator seeks restitution to defrauded customers, forfeiture of all funds generated through the scheme, a trading ban and a permanent injunction.

Information on Pinillo’s lawyers was not immediately available. Pinillo did not respond to a request for comment sent via social media.

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