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 on Thursday to securities fraud.
Stefan He Qin has been accused of deceiving investors, claiming that he used a trading algorithm to take advantage of the price differences of a series of cryptocurrencies, federal prosecutors said in an e-mailed statement.
Qin stole money from investors in his Virgil Sigma Fund LP and tried to dive into his VQR Multistrategy Fund LP to pay investors in the first fund, prosecutors said. It AdmitTed trying to steal from another fund he controlled to cover demands for redemption of VQR funds, according to the statement.
“The whole house of cards has been revealed and Qin is now awaiting sentencing for his blatant theft,” Audrey Strauss, US attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement.
Qin’s fraud was based on false statements about his investment strategy to attract millions of dollars from investors to fraudulent cryptocurrency firms, prosecutors said. Qin, an Australian citizen, diverted almost all of the capital from the Virgil Sigma fund to pay, among other personal expenses, a penthouse apartment. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
“Sir. Qin has accepted full responsibility for his actions and is committed to doing what he can to make amends,” said his lawyers, Sean Hecker and Shawn Crowley, in a statement.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a lawsuit civil case against Qin in December.
– With the help of Olga Kharif
(Updates with comments from Qin’s lawyers)