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By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 2/5/2021 9:07 AM ET
An Australian national was charged in the Southern District of New York with securities fraud for his alleged role in conspiring to steal investor money from a pair of New York-based cryptocurrency hedge funds that he owned and controlled, according to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ).
24-year old Stefan He Qin pled guilty in Manhattan federal court on Thursday to one count of securities fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison. The sentencing of the defendant, scheduled for May 20, 2021, will be determined by the judge.
Qin is the founder of two multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency hedge funds in New York - Virgil Sigma Fund LP and VQR Multistrategy Fund LP - which have over $100 million in investments.
According to the complaint, Qin stole investor money from Virgil Sigma between 2017 through 2020 and then he tried to steal investor money from VQR to pay back his investors in Virgil Sigma later in December 2020.
In the course of stealing assets from Virgil Sigma, Qin regularly lied to the fund's investors about the value, location, and status of their investment capital.
Qin drained almost all of the assets from the $90 million cryptocurrency fund he owned, stealing investors' money, spending it on indulgences and speculative personal investments, and lying to investors about the performance of the fund and what he had done with their money, the DoJ said.
Qin then attempted to steal money from another fund he controlled to meet redemption demands of the defrauded investors in the former fund. They were revealed to be slush funds for Qin to live his extravagant lifestyle.
For the success of his criminal scheme, Qin made misrepresentations and false promises that coaxed investors into pouring millions of dollars into fraudulent cryptocurrency firms, all the while stealing the hard-earned money of his investors. He mastered the art of trickery by representing these firms as profitable investment strategies.
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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.
Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe
