An accomplice of a five-man $722 million crypto Ponzi scheme has pleaded guilty.
Silviu Catalin Bacali, one of the five men accused of pulling a long con, pleaded guilty to the charges against him on Thursday, July 9. According to a Justice Department court document, Bacali was charged with one count of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud.” The fraudulent act involved the selling of unregistered securities under the company BitClub Network (BCN).
Bacali is a 35-year-old Romanian crypto programmer. His four other accomplices are Joseph Frank Abel, Matthew Brent Goettsche, Russ Albert Medlin, and Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks. In December 2019, after a long investigation, authorities arrested the BCN team.
Bacali’s charges carry a maximum prison time of five years. He is also required to pay a $250,000 fine.
According to the court document, the Ponzi scheme began in April 2014 and ran until their arrest in December. The plan was to sell a fictitious Bitcoin mining pool to investors, promising high returns. In the five years of running the scheme, the co-conspirators got over $722 million from unsuspecting investors.
In 2016, 99Bitcoins, a crypto news outlet, warned that BCN may be a scam based on its analysis. In 2017, other members from the crypto community began making similar speculations.
Image Credits: Pixabay
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