A former pastor for a Spanish-speaking church in Washington state ran a multiyear Bitcoin fraud that raised more than $5.9 million from over 1,500 investors, including several of his congregants, according to a suit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Francier Obando Pinillo used his pulpit, as well as multiple social media platforms and businesses, to carry out the alleged fraud by soliciting assets that he purported to trade on the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading Ltd., the complaint says.
The alleged Ponzi scheme took place from November 2021 to December 2023, during which Pinillo falsely represented to customers ...
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