The SEC has accused the founder of BitConnect of fraud for 325,000 bitcoins

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has sued the organizer of the defunct BitConnect crypto pyramid on charges of unregistered and fraudulent placement of securities worth $2 billion.

According to the lawsuit published on Wednesday, the SEC is seeking a jury trial for BitConnect, its founder Satish Kumbhani, promoter Glen Arcaro and Future Money Ltd. According to the SEC, the scale of the scheme's activities amounted to 325,000 BTC - $2 billion at that time and $15 billion at the current exchange rate. The agency also claims that BitConnect attracted investors with false statements about the possibility of generating income of up to 40% per month using its own "software bot for trading on volatility", which did not really exist.

Earlier this year, the SEC has already sued five participants of the scheme and secured the recovery of $12 million from two of them. According to the regulator, Arkaro led the promotion of BitConnect.
"Arcaro and his promoters, none of whom was registered with the commission as a broker-dealer and was not associated with a registered broker-dealer, promoted potentially high — yield investments in the lending program among retail investors using recommendation-style videos that they published on YouTube, sometimes several times a day, with referral links to the lending program," the latest lawsuit says.
Kumbhani's LinkedIn page still says that he works at BitConnect and "trains people around the world on the topic of cryptocurrencies" on behalf of the "fast - growing bitcoin and crypto community".