tl;dr
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Francier Obando Pinillo, accusing the former pastor of orchestrating a multilevel marketing scheme that allegedly took at least $5.9 million in cash and digital assets for a fake “Solanofi platform.” Pinillo allegedly targeted “unsophi...
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Francier Obando Pinillo, accusing the former pastor of orchestrating a multilevel marketing scheme that allegedly took at least $5.9 million in cash and digital assets for a fake “Solanofi platform.” Pinillo allegedly targeted “unsophisticated investors,” including Spanish-speaking members of a Washington-based church. He allegedly made false statements about trading Bitcoin on investors’ behalf, sent digital assets to private wallets in Colombia, and provided a fake dashboard showing falsified account balances.
The case mirrors civil charges brought against a Colorado-based couple earlier this year and involves allegations of promoting a token backed by nothing but god’s word. Pinillo instructed investors to send various digital assets to wallets he created and controlled and claimed he would release a token embodying Christian values called “ShekkelCoin,” which prosecutors said was never released. Pinillo made several excuses for investors’ inability to withdraw funds, which prosecutors claimed were false.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a lawsuit against Francier Obando Pinillo on Tuesday, accusing the former pastor of orchestrating a multilevel marketing scheme that allegedly took at least $5.9 million in cash and digital assets for a fake “Solanofi platform.” Promising investors they could earn up to 34.9% monthly through a so-called leveraged staking platform, Pinillo allegedly targeted “unsophisticated investors,” including Spanish-speaking members of a Washington-based church, according to a complaint filed by the CFTC.
Staking refers to the process whereby users pledge digital assets to a network in order to help it validate transactions—but the Commission alleged that no such activity took place. Instead, Pinillo allegedly pocketed money from 1,500 unwitting investors, made false statements about trading Bitcoin on their behalf, and later claimed that investors’ funds were lost in FTX’s bankruptcy. Of the money he raised, Pinillo allegedly sent $4 million worth of digital assets to 23 “private digital wallets” that prosecutors believe are in Colombia. Resembling the name of Solana, the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Pinillo’s Solanofi platform allegedly never existed.
The case, in which a religious authority is accused of abusing his trust while touting crypto tech, mirrored civil charges brought against a Colorado-based couple earlier this year. Promoting a token backed by nothing but god’s word, a lawsuit brought by the Colorado’s securities regulator centered on pastor Eligio “Eli” Regalado, INDXcoin, and his online church Victorious Grace.
Whether it was FTX’s bankruptcy or technical issues regarding the Solanofi platform, Pinillo made several excuses for investors’ inability to withdraw funds that prosecutors claimed were false. At his Washington church, a woman allegedly begged Pinillo for her money back to no avail.
“Never has a dark night defeated the power of a dawn,” the former pastor wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post, translated from Spanish by Decrypt. “When the storms get worse, it is because the calm is about to begin.”