An individual involved in the promotion of the cryptocurrency fraud BitConnect faces a jail sentence term in Australia.
The ASIC [Australian Securities & Investments Commission] revealed recently on Tuesday that John Bigatton has been alleged with operating an unregistered managed investment scheme, offering unregulated financial services & making false or misleading statements affecting market participation.
The charges [6 in number] each bring possible maximum prison terms of two–10 years, also as possible monetary penalties summing upwards of A$80k [$58,500 USD].
The financial watchdog gave Bigatton a seven-year ban from offering financial services earlier in September.
He is accused of promoting the Ponzi scheme until it collapsed in early 2018.
ASIC added that the cryptocurrency launched by the operators had accrued a market capitalization of over $2.5 Bln at the peak of the market earlier in December 2017.
BitConnect was found out as a cryptocurrency lending scheme, but had an MLM structure and touted unfeasibly high payouts, attracting the ire of regulators.
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