The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil enforcement action against Solanofi entities for engaging in a digital assets multilevel marketing scheme worth at least $5.9 million. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on Tuesday.
According to the complaint, Francier Obando Pinillo, doing business as Solanofi, Solano Partners Ltd., and Solano Capital Investments, targeted at least 1,515, mainly Spanish-speaking, customers as either himself or one of the Solanofi entities. He claimed to operate a risk-free, staking trading platform that rewarded users through an interest pool based on high performance trading of cryptographic assets. He purposefully targeted people with little to no experience in or understanding of digital asset transactions or commodity interest trading.
Pinillo guaranteed profits of up to 34.9 percent compounded monthly and offered to pay a 15 percent referral fee to customers if their friends and family participated. Customers had access to an online dashboard with fictional account statements showing balances and profits that didn’t exist.
The CFTC seeks restitution to defrauded customers, civil monetary penalties, trading bans,
disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC Regulations.