An Australian man, founder of two multi-million crypto funds in New York, pleaded guilty on a crypto scam charge. The Ponzi scheme used a trading algorithm, taking advantage of price differences for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The 24-year-old man defrauded clients of their cryptocurrency-oriented hedge funds, squeezing $90M worth of various cryptocurrencies. According to a recent local report, Stefan He Qin organized the crypto scam that stole about $90 million from clients through his hedge funds – Virgil Sigma Fund LP (“Virgil Sigma”) and the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP (“VQR”).
Two crypto hedge funds attracted over $100M of investments.
The two cryptocurrency hedge funds located in New York attracted over $100M of investments from around the world. In a few years, the Australian citizen managed to steal investor’s money from the Virgil Sigma fund. In December last year, he made another attempt for a classic Ponzi scheme, stealing clients’ money from VQR in order to pay back his investors in Virgil Sigma. Stefan He Qin was charged with one count of securities fraud and pled guilty in Manhattan federal court.
Stefan He Qin spent all of the assets from the $90 million cryptocurrency fund he owned.
“Stefan He Qin drained almost all of the assets from the $90 million cryptocurrency fund he owned, stealing investors’ money, spending it on indulgences and speculative personal investments, and lying to investors about the performance of the fund and what he had done with their money”, said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. Later on, Qin admitted his attempt to steal funds from another fund he controlled to meet the deceived investors’ demands from the former fund. According to the court statement, the multi-million investment hedge funds Virgil Sigma and VQR packed Qin with slush funds for his extravagant lifestyle.