Sydney Court Sentences Bigatton for Unlicensed Financial Advice on Crypto

The Sydney District Court has convicted John Bigatton, an Australian promoter of the now-defunct crypto exchange platform BitConnect, for providing unlicensed financial advice. 

The conviction is in reaction to charges filed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), signifying the commission’s determination to protect investors in Australia. 

John Bigatton specialized in referring BitConnect through seminars and social media between Aug. 2017 and Jan. 2018. The ASIC’s investigation established that Bigatton’s activities included making significant representations of the profitability of the BCC investments_bigatton Advertisement-a personality asserted that the BCC value would rise at least to $ 1000. 

Nevertheless, the court stated that his utterances fell under unlicensed financial promotion prohibited under Australia’s economic laws. 

The verdict handed to Bigatton also includes three years on recognizance for good behavior and a five-year ban on corporate management. These are some of the measures that ASIC has taken to ensure that the economy’s financial sector is cogent and has the trust of the Australian public. 

The BitConnect Scheme 

Established in 2016, BitConnect developed an ERC20 token, BitConnect Coin, which is traded for Bitcoin. This plan was due to high returns on the platform by re-lending BCC through the platform’s ‘volatility lending’ program, where investors lend BCC for fixed tenure at presupposed guaranteed returns. 

However, later, ASIC, along with various other regulators, recognized this structure as having all the features of a Ponzi scheme. 

At seminars, Bigatton’s promotional strategies’ key messages were high profitability and better results than the stock market. As a result of Clarys’s claims, investors saw their money vanish when BitConnect, which he promoted, crashed. This judgment from the Sydney District Court means that financial licensing laws must be followed, especially in high-risk investment areas such as cryptocurrency. 

Ongoing Legal Proceedings 

In December 2018, ASIC obtained a free order of the assets through the Federal Court of Australia, including the bitcoins. This was the first time an Australian regulator had obtained freezing orders over digital assets. 

The civil forfeiture proceedings that the Australian Federal Police conduct under the Proceeds of Crime Act are still ongoing in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The value of the frozen assets is projected to be somewhere in the millionth of a dollar.

ASIC Deputy Chair Sarah Court stated, 

“Providing unlicensed financial advice denies Australian investors access to key protections and undermines trust and confidence in Australia’s financial services industry. ASIC is committed to taking action against the unlawful promotion of high-risk digital assets to protect Australian investors.”

International Repercussions

In early 2022, Satish Kumbhani, the founder of BitConnect, was indicted by a U.S. court jury for orchestrating the international multi-billion dollar crypto Ponzi scheme. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reported that Kumbhani allegedly relocated from India to an unknown foreign country, with his current whereabouts remaining unknown.

In January 2023, a U.S. federal district court in San Diego ruled that over 800 victims of the BitConnect Ponzi scheme should receive a portion of a $17 million restitution recovered from the $2.4 billion scam. This international case underlines the widespread impact of unregulated crypto schemes and the necessity for stringent regulatory measures.