- Founder of $2.4 billion BitConnect Ponzi scheme Satish Kumbhani is still not found.
- Kumbhani has been charged for committing fraud, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, etc.
- The SEC is unsure when their efforts will result in Kumbhani being located, or if he will be located at all.
Satish Kumbhani, founder of the cryptocurrency exchange BitConnect, remains untraced following an indictment in a $2.4 billion Ponzi scheme by the United States Department of Justice.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a court filing that Kumbhani’s location is still not known. The SEC also noted that Kumbhani’s last known location was in his native country India. However, he has remained untraced ever since the SEC charged his BitConnect Ponzi scheme promoter for defrauding American investors of over $2 billion.
In its filing on Monday, the SEC noted that the convicted founder has most probably fled to a foreign country. The Commission stated further that it is unclear when their efforts to locate him will be successful, or if they will be successful at all.
The BitConnect founder has been charged with wire fraud, operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, as well as three conspiracies: committing wire fraud, commodity price manipulation, and international money laundering.
For those who have not been in the crypto space in its earlier years, the BitConnect saga started back in the ICO-era and was among the most highlighted and talked about projects at the time. The project was founded in 2016 and became a global phenomenon by mid-2017, as it raised billions of dollars from investors across the globe.
BitConnect promised investors a lending program that would be based on a proprietary “trading bot” and “volatility software” that would offer them a 10% earning through the platform’s native BCC token.
BCC reached an all-time high trading price at the peak of the 2017 cryptocurrency market bull run, reaching a market cap of $3.4 billion. Unfortunately, the founders of the project orchestrated a rug pull which saw the token price crashing to near zero. This resulted in massive losses for investors and a public outcry.