CLEVELAND — The Federal Bureau of Investigation is seeking potential victims who invested in the cryptocurrency Bitconnect coin (BCC), which was first released through an initial coin offering orchestrated by Bitconnect in November 2016.
For a majority of BCC’s existence, the only place to purchase, trade, or sell the cryptocurrency was through the proprietary exchange hosted by Bitconnect. By mid-December 2017, BCC boasted a market cap of over $2.5 billion. Bitconnect guaranteed investors up to a 10 percent total return per month on their investment, following a tiered-investment system based on the sum of an investor’s initial deposit.
“The first potential victim identified is from our area of responsibility (Northern Ohio),” said Vicki Anderson, of the FBI. “This person came to us. This individual does not want to be identified.”
The entire market for BCC crashed in late January 2018, after two U.S. state-level securities regulators issued public letters warning investors of the Ponzi-type nature of Bitconnect. This led to Bitconnect completely shutting down its exchange for BCC, eliminating the market for the cryptocurrency and stranding investors with near-worthless cryptocurrency.
“The FBI needs assistance in reaching potential victims of this scheme,” Anderson said. “Due to the nature of cryptocurrency it is difficult to know the true identity of investors in Bitconnect, they are assigned alphanumeric identities.
“The loss amount is estimated between $2.5 and $3.5 billion, and victims are worldwide.”
If you invested in Bitconnect, the FBI is asking you to complete a brief questionnaire at https://www.fbi.gov/resources/victim-services/seeking-victim-information/seeking-victims-in-bitconnect-investigation. Your responses are voluntary and would be useful in the federal assessment of this matter and to identify you as a BCC investor and/or potential victim.
Based on the responses provided, you may be contacted by the FBI and asked to provide additional information. Any questions regarding this press release should be directed to Special Agent Vicki Anderson at 216-522-1400 or vdanderson@fbi.gov.
