Pastor sued for promoting $6M crypto Ponzi scheme to congregants
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking to claw back nearly $6 million plus penalties from a Washington state pastor accused of tricking more than 1,500 Hispanic individuals, including members of his own church, into investing in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scam authorities have described as a Ponzi scheme.
A civil enforcement complaint filed by the CFTC in the District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on Monday alleges that former pastor Francier Obando Pinillo, doing business as Solanofi, Solano Partners Ltd., and Solano Capital Investments — collectively Solanofi entities — targeted at least 1,515 “unsophisticated” victims with his scheme that ran from at least Nov. 1, 2021, to Dec. 31, 2023.
“Throughout the Relevant Period, defendant targeted unsophisticated customers who had little to no experience in digital asset transactions or commodity interest trading, and who were unfamiliar with how an investment in staking digital assets occurred,” the agency explained. “Defendant’s solicitations were almost exclusively in Spanish, which permitted him to abuse his position of trust as a pastor at a church in Pasco, Washington, to attract customers who were congregants of that primarily Spanish-speaking church.”
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Authorities say Pinillo mixed his scam with religion and enticed his unsuspecting victims with claims of guaranteed profits of up to 34.9% compounded monthly. He offered presentations showing examples of a $1,000 investment growing to just under $1 million in 24 months.
“In the latter part of the relevant period, defendant continued his fraudulent scheme by making new misrepresentations to attract additional assets from customers, including: the release of what he described in written solicitations as a purportedly ‘Christian-values’ oriented token called the ‘ShekkelCoin,’” the CFTC said.
Pinillo charged victims a $1,500 maintenance fee to access the Solanofi website, which he allegedly cut off, prosecutors say. They also say he charged another $1,500 fee to support his company’s purported legal efforts to recover assets from another bankrupt crypto-exchange he claimed held a large amount of the customers’ investments.
“As the pastor at his church in Pasco, WA, and as a guest speaker at other churches, defendant was able to reach a vast number of potential customers, who believed he was honest and trust-worthy. At one mega-church in Florida, defendant lectured the congregants on the importance of lifting themselves out of poverty and then proceeded to pitch them on the 34.9%/month Solanofi trading scheme,” the complaint said.
Pinillo promised investors in his scheme that they would be able to start making withdrawals from their investment accounts after three months but failed to deliver on that promise, the complaint states.
“Defendant misappropriated all assets he received from customers; and payments sent by Pinillo to earlier-in-time customers in the form of sham ‘profits’ and/or MLM ‘referral’ payments were actually misappropriated assets of later-in-time customers in the nature of a ‘Ponzi’ scheme,” the CFTC said.
The regulatory agency of the U.S. derivatives markets said their lawsuit seeks restitution for Pinillo’s victims as well as other penalties for his actions.
“In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution to defrauded customers, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, trading bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations,” the agency noted in a press release.
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