From cointelegraph by Brayden Lindrea

A Washington state grand jury has indicted a pastor on 26 counts of fraud for allegedly stealing from more than 1,500 investors through the sham crypto scheme Solano Fi — which supposedly came to him “in a dream.”

The Justice Department said on Jan. 9 that Francier Obando Pinillo was arraigned at a federal court in Washington for allegedly using his position as a pastor to induce members of his congregation into a crypto scheme called Solano Fi.

“Pinillo claimed the idea for Solano Fi had come to him in a dream and that it was a safe and guaranteed investment,” it added.

He faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

In December, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a fraud and misappropriation lawsuit against Pinillom, claiming that the 51-year-old stole $6 million.

The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington said Pinillo was a pastor at a Spanish-language church in Pasco, Washington. It claimed he recruited investors via Solano Fi’s Facebook page and the Telegram group “Multimillionarios SolanoFi,” which had over 1,500 members.

It said some of Pinillo’s alleged victims attended his church in Washington.

Prosecutors alleged he told prospective investors that Solano Fi traded Bitcoin BTC$93,065, Ether ETH$3,182.58 and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients and that it staked tokens to compound monthly returns to a risk-free 35%.

Diagram and excerpt of the Nov. 7 grand jury indictment against Pinillo. Source: CourtListener

They claimed that investors would supposedly see fraudulent account balances reflecting fake returns on the Solano Fi website but were barred from withdrawing funds.

Some victims were allegedly told they had to wait until the crypto markets improved, while others were told they couldn’t withdraw funds unless they brought in a new investor to “buy out” their account, according to the Justice Department.It accused Pinillo and his accomplices of pocketing investor funds while making the excuses.

Prosecutors claimed victims were also falsely incentivized to earn additional returns for every new investor they brought into the scheme — a common tactic in pyramid schemes.

Solano Fi ran between November 2021 and October 2023.

Washington US Attorney Vanessa Waldref said her office is committed to recovering as much of the stolen funds as possible. However, she noted doing so with alleged crypto scams can be challenging due to the nature of crypto accounts.