According to the CFTC’s complaint, Pastor Francier Obando Pinillo led a Hispanic church in Pasco, Washington. Between November 2021 and December 2023, Pinillo operated the trading platform, ensuring investors, including members of his community, made large profits through cryptocurrency trading.
The cleric introduced himself as the CEO of Solanofi and Solano Partners, which he said operated the “Solano ecosystem” for trading cryptocurrencies. In addition to monthly profits of up to 34.9%, clients were offered staking services through “Solanofi 2.0.” For attracting other participants to the cryptocurrency pyramid, investors were promised a 15% referral bonus. However, these statements were false and customer accounts displayed fraudulent bank statements.
The CFTC said Pinillo did not actually provide cryptocurrency trading and staking services, but instead misappropriated client funds. Most of the victims were new investors who had not previously transacted with digital assets, and all “business negotiations” were conducted in Spanish. The CFTC sought forfeiture of the defendant’s money, damages to the victims, and an injunction against the defendant’s trading in assets.
“Defendant communicated with investors exclusively in Spanish, which allowed him to abuse his position as a pastor and gain the trust of the public,” the CFTC said.
At the beginning of the year, American authorities accused another pastor, Eli Regalado, who founded the INDXcoin project, of cryptocurrency fraud. He embezzled $1.3 million to renovate his home.
Source: Bits
I am an experienced journalist, writer, and editor with a passion for finance and business news. I have been working in the journalism field for over 6 years, covering a variety of topics from finance to technology. As an author at World Stock Market, I specialize in finance business-related topics.
