Former Pasco pastor, Francier Obando Pinillo, indicted for orchestrating a multi-million dollar crypto scam targeting investors.

A former pastor from Pasco, Washington, has been indicted for his alleged involvement in a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency fraud scheme. The charges were announced by U.S. Attorney Vanessa Waldref, on January 8, 2025. They are accusing the pastor, Francier Obando Pinillo, of fraudulently collecting money from investors between November 2021 and October 2023. According to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice, he faces 26 counts of fraud. The federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Washington filed the indictment.

An arraignment of Pinillo, 51, of Miami, Florida, on January 12, 2025, was at U.S. District Court in Richland, Washington. He was the pastor of Ministerio Apostolico Profetico Tiempos de Poder, a Spanish-language church in Pasco, Washington. The indictment also alleges that using his position Pinillo convinced church members and others to invest in a cryptocurrency business, ‘Solano Fi.’ Solano Fi was an idea that came to Pinillo in a dream, he claimed. It was a safe and guaranteed investment, he said.

Former Pastor Faces Fraud Charges Over $34M Crypto Scam

To recruit investors, Pinillo used various social media platforms such as a Facebook page and a Telegram group. The group had over 1,500 members and was called “Multimillionarios SolanoFi.” There is a group called “Multimillionarios SolanoFi” and it has more than 1,500 followers.” Solano Fi, officials with the company told investors, used cryptocurrency’staking’ to guarantee monthly returns of 34.9% with no risk. Investors, he said, could access and withdraw their money through an online platform. The platform was, however, fraudulent, according to the indictment. They had a fake balance and fake gains of their accounts but couldn’t make withdrawals.

Pinillo invested that money instead with himself and his coconspirators. To encourage investors to go out to recruit others, he promised that shareholders would earn additional returns for every new investor. Pinillo later said that when the victims needed to withdraw their money he made excuses. He’ll say the website was down, the market wasn’t good enough, or they need to bring in a new investor so they can buy out the account.

Victims were told by Pinillo they also needed to send more money to “repair” the system. In reality he was taking the funds of these people for himself. If convicted of Pinillo’s charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Cryptocurrency scams have become a new way that fraudsters target honest people and steal their money, U.S. Attorney Waldref said. The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dan Fruchter and Jeremy J. Kelley are prosecuting the case.