Stefan He Qin has pleaded guilty to draining the investor accounts of his New-York based crypto fund of $90 million. On Thursday, February 4, Qin, an Australian citizen, joined the guilty argument on a single count of securities fraud in a Manhattan federal court. Moreover, Qin carried out the crypto scam fraud amid 2017 and 2020. According to a statement from the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, he operated Virgil Sigma’s fund.
As per the U.S. DOJ, Qin duped investors via Virgil Sigma fund for years. In December 2020, he tried to steal capital from his VQR Multistrategy Fund to return the Virgil Sigma Fund investors. Qin is declared guilty on February 4, 2021, before U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni. Moreover, the 24-year-old Qin lied to investors amid 2017 and 2020 about the review of the cryptocurrency hedge funds. A Homeland Security Investigations special agent, Peter Fitzhugh, revealed that Qin’s two New York-based multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency investment funds were exposed to be utilize funds for his flamboyant lifestyle. Moreover, the funds involve Virgil Sigma and VQR Multistrategy Fund.
Stefan He Qin to face 20 years in prison by U.S. DOJ
Moreover, the maximum of the deceived investors were U.S. citizens. Qin could suffer up to 20 years in prison at sentencing on May 20. Virgil Sigma reportedly applied a strategy to make profits from cryptocurrency arbitrage opportunities in the crypto markets. Moreover, he adopted a trading algorithm to take advantage of price discrepancies over 40 different exchanges in the world.
Further, in its public market materials, Virgil Sigma has been displayed as being a profitable firm monthly from August 2016 to date, except March 2017. The crypto market has witnessed a prominent extension in current years due to a surge in institutional investors’ adoption and demand. However, scammers have also hastened their attempts in recent years to target cryptocurrency investors.
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