• The CFTC has identified a crypto scam convicting a Spanish-speaking church pastor defrauding members. 
• Cryptocurrency scams have shown a surge this year.

A mid-week slump has taken place in the crypto sector after the previous day’s grave incident. A daunting silence, not novel to the community, hangs over its X space and other sub-sectors. Prices have been working towards a recovery but not enough to grab a spotlight. Meanwhile, the CFTC has reported a cryptocurrency scam in the past day. 

According to its official report, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has convicted a former Church Pastor in Washington DC. Francier Obando Pinillo, who headed a Spanish-speaking church, was accused of a cryptocurrency scam for his business – Solanofi entities. 

The pastor is said to have targeted nearly 1,515 customers from his firm which included subsidiaries, Solanofi, Solano Partners Ltd., and Solano Capital Investments. He is accused of excluding crucial facts and risk factors of trading from customers new to the crypto realm. 

Additionally, Pinillo pretended to be the CEO of the Solanofi Entities which supposedly had an ‘automated computer trading system’. This system called the Solanofi was also accompanied by a leveraged staking trading platform. With his target customers having little to no knowledge in the field and being only Spanish-speaking caused them to fall victim to the scam. 

How Did Pinillo Operate the CFTC-Discovered Crypto Scam? 

The Church Pastor, as aforementioned, created a forged front with his Solano entities firm. As explained by CFTC, he guided his customers to a dashboard that showed their account statements and other specific details. However, the data in this particular dashboard seemed to have been forged. 

Meanwhile, Pinillo had been misappropriating all the assets from his customers. The CFTC stated – “During the relevant period, there was no trading platform, no trading took place, no profits were generated.” 

Over the past year, several cryptocurrency scams have been brought to the forefront. One of the largest scams still remains WazirX. This particular scam occurred in July 2024 and the funds are yet to be recovered. Recently, OpenAI’s X account was hacked and the hacker began promoting a cryptocurrency phishing scam. 

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