A 51-year-old Miami resident and pastor is accused of using his pulpit to lure unsuspecting souls into a cryptocurrency scam.
According to a January 8 release from the United States Department of Justice, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington indicted Francier Obando Pinillo on 26 counts of fraud, alleging that he masterminded a scheme to cryptocurrency that drained millions of investors between November 2021 and October. 2023.
Pinillo’s allegation, called “Solano Fi,” was not your average crypto. It came to him in a “dream”.
As the pastor of Ministerio Apostólico Profético Tiempos de Poder, a Spanish-language church in Pasco, Washington, Pinillo assured his congregation and other potential investors that Solano Fi was a “safe and guaranteed investment.”
Their promise: a monthly return of 34.9%.
To sweeten the deal, Pinillo allegedly launched a social media blitz, complete with a Solano Fi Facebook page and a Telegram group titled “Multimillionarios SolanoFi,” which boasted more than 1,500 members.
Shady Solano Fi
According to prosecutors, the only thing that multiplied in Solano Fi was Pinillo’s personal wealth. Instead of staking the investors’ funds as promised, the indictment states that he channeled their money into accounts controlled by himself and his co-conspirators.
Pinillo also offered a 15% referral bonus to encourage others to join Solano Fi, creating a Ponzi-like structure and using funds from new investors to pay fictitious profits to early participants.
In addition, the online platform he assumed allowed investors to see his growing wealth. In reality, the online application “was actually designed to allow investors to view allegedly fraudulent balances and alleged investment earnings, but not allow investors to withdraw funds,” the DOJ said. statement read
Things got even more creative when investors started asking for their money. Pinillo blamed the faulty website or bearish cryptocurrency market. In some cases, he refused to return investments unless the victim brought in a new investor to “buy” his account.
“Fraudulent investment schemes are not new, but cryptocurrency scams are a new way that fraudsters take money from hard-working, honest people,” said US Attorney Vanessa Waldref.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dan Fruchter and Jeremy J. Kelley, with the FBI leading the investigation. As for Pinillo, he was arraigned in US District Court in Richland, Washington, where he will need more than faith to navigate his legal battles.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission first archived a civil enforcement action against Pinillo, which destined primarily Spanish-speaking members of the pastor’s church in Pasco, Washington.
