Photographer: Akos Stiller / Bloomberg
Photographer: Akos Stiller / Bloomberg
A 24-year-old founder of two New York-based cryptocurrency hedge funds with more than $ 100 million in investments pleaded guilty to securities fraud on Thursday.
Stefan He Qin was charged with defrauding investors by claiming that he used a trading algorithm to take advantage of price differentials for a number of cryptocurrencies, federal prosecutors said in an emailed statement.
Qin stole investor money from his Virgil Sigma Fund LP, and tried to dive into his VQR Multistrategy Fund LP to repay investors in the first fund, prosecutors said. He to admitAccording to the statement, Ted attempted to steal from yet another fund he controlled to meet the VQR fund’s redemption requirements.
“The entire house of cards has been revealed and Qin is now awaiting conviction for his brutal theft,” Audrey Strauss, the acting US attorney for Manhattan, said in the statement.
Qin’s fraud was based on a misrepresentation of his investment strategy of luring millions of dollars from investors to the fraudulent cryptocurrency companies, prosecutors said. An Australian citizen, Qin embezzled nearly all of the Virgil Sigma fund’s capital to pay for a penthouse apartment, among other personal expenses. He is facing a whopping 20 years in prison.
“Mr. Qin has accepted full responsibility for his actions and is determined to do what he can to make amends,” said lawyers Sean Hecker and Shawn Crowley in a statement.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a parallel civil suit against Qin in December.
– With the help of Olga Kharif
(Updates with commentary from Qin’s attorneys)