{"id":3506,"date":"2025-01-13T13:48:52","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T15:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/criptonizando.com\/en\/?p=3506"},"modified":"2025-01-13T13:48:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T15:48:52","slug":"pastor-gets-20-years-jail-term-over-fraudulent-crypto-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/criptonizando.com\/en\/news\/pastor-gets-20-years-jail-term-over-fraudulent-crypto-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Gets 20 Years Jail Term Over Fraudulent Crypto Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A Washington state pastor has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly scamming over 1,500 investors through a crypto scheme called Solano Fi, which he claimed was inspired by a dream.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On January 9, the Justice Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-edwa\/pr\/former-tri-cities-pastor-indicted-multi-million-dollar-cryptocurrency-scam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">announced<\/a> that Francier Obando Pinillo was arraigned in federal court. Prosecutors say he used his position as a pastor to persuade members of his congregation to invest in what he called a &#8220;safe and guaranteed&#8221; opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pinillo reportedly told investors that Solano Fi was a risk-free venture, but authorities say it was a scam. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Deep Dive into How The Pastor Carried Out the Crypto Scam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In December, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a separate lawsuit accusing Pinillo of stealing $6 million from investors.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Eastern District of Washington says Pinillo was a pastor at a Spanish-speaking church in Pasco, Washington. He allegedly recruited investors through Solano Fi\u2019s Facebook page and a Telegram group called \u201cMultimillionarios SolanoFi,\u201d which had over 1,500 members.\u00a0Some of the victims were reportedly members of his own congregation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prosecutors say that Solano Fi\u2019s founder misled potential investors by claiming the company traded Bitcoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrencies on their behalf. He also allegedly promised risk-free monthly returns of up to 35% by staking tokens.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Justice Department, investors saw fake account balances on the Solano Fi website, showing returns that didn\u2019t exist. However, they were reportedly unable to withdraw funds. Some were told they had to wait for the crypto <a href=\"https:\/\/criptonizando.com\/en\/news\/why-is-the-crypto-market-starting-the-week-down-12-30-24\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">market<\/a> to recover, while others were told they needed to bring in new investors to \u201cbuy out\u201d their accounts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prosecutors allege that the founder and his team kept the investors\u2019 money for themselves while making these excuses. They also claim victims were misled with promises of extra returns if they referred new investors, a tactic often seen in pyramid schemes.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scheme allegedly operated from November 2021 to October 2023. Washington U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref stated that her office is focused on recovering as much of the stolen money as possible. However, she acknowledged that the nature of cryptocurrency accounts can make recovery efforts more difficult.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Washington state pastor has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly scamming over 1,500 investors through a crypto scheme called Solano Fi, which he claimed was inspired by a dream.\u00a0\u00a0 On January 9, the Justice Department announced that Francier Obando Pinillo was arraigned in federal court. Prosecutors say he used his position [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":3507,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tpgb_global_settings":"","kia_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44,20,27],"class_list":["post-3506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-blockchain","tag-crypto-market","tag-digital-asset"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pastor Gets 20 Years Jail Term Over Fraudulent Crypto Dream - Criptonizando<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington pastor Francier Obando Pinillo indicted for fraud, accused of scamming crypto investors via Solano Fi crypto scheme inspired\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/criptonizando.com\/en\/news\/pastor-gets-20-years-jail-term-over-fraudulent-crypto-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pastor Gets 20 Years Jail Term Over Fraudulent Crypto Dream - 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