The man behind two now-defunct cryptocurrency investment sites has pled guilty to securities fraud and obstruction of justice charges.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced the guilty plea on Monday, coming days after it was reported that Montroll was close to a deal with prosecutors.
Jon Montroll was arrested back in February by U.S. authorities, as CoinDesk reported at the time, in connection with securities investment platform BitFunder and crypto exchange site WeExchange.
Montroll was accused of running an unregistered securities exchange, as well as providing info to investigators that was described as "Misleading." Montroll also allegedly "Converted a portion of WeExchange users' bitcoins to his personal use without the users' knowledge or consent," according to a statement published Monday.
He notably was accused of lying about the number of bitcoins available to BitFunder and WeExchange users after the latter was hacked, as well as committing perjury while testifying to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
WeExchange lost around 6,000 bitcoins at the time of the hack, which left the platform insolvent, as previously reported.
"As he admitted today, Jon Montroll deceived his investors and then attempted to deceive the SEC. He repeatedly lied during sworn testimony and misled SEC staff to avoid taking responsibility for the loss of thousands of his customers' bitcoins."
Though the case was originally brought by the SEC, the FBI and Southern District of New York Attorney's office prosecuted Montroll under criminal charges.
U.S. District Judge Richard Berman will sentence Montroll at an undetermined future date.
CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.
Crypto Stock Exchange Operator Pleads Guilty to Fraud
Publicado en Jul 23, 2018
by Coindesk | Publicado en Coinage
Coinage
Noticias recientes
Ver todo
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.