Pastor charged with fraud after shilling crypto to congregation

Pump-and-dumps and other fraud schemes have become synonymous with cryptocurrency, with everyone from political leaders to YouTube influencers accused of using crypto FOMO to make a quick buck at the expense of their followers. But one Washington pastor decided his own church flock was an appropriate place to start fleecing, according to the US Department of Justice.

The DoJ has charged Francier Obando Pinillo, the former pastor of a church in Pasco, Washington state, with 26 counts of fraud. So says an official press release issued last week and spotted by Bleeping Computer. According to the assistant district attorneys charging Pinillo, he sold his “Solano Fi” cryptocurrency to his parishioners both in person and on social media from 2021 to 2023, promising them a 34.9 percent return on investment with “no risk whatsoever.”

Pinillo allegedly claimed that the idea for the cryptocurrency “had come to him in a dream,” but funneled the investments into his own accounts and those of his co-conspirators, while showing his victims fake balances and returns via a mobile investment app. The DoJ alleges that victims were told to share the investment scam with others, and when suspicions of foul play were raised, Pinillo offered to “repair” the technical systems with more money or buy out their positions by replacing them with another investor.

Pinillo is charged with defrauding over a thousand victims both inside his own church and elsewhere of 5.9 million dollars. If convicted he could serve up to 20 years in prison.

The insane rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, creating legitimate wealth for a small number of early investors, has made cryptocurrency an appealing and easy avenue for scammers. It’s all the easier if you’re seen as a figure of trust and authority, ditto if your audience isn’t fully versed in either financial investment, the realities of the crypto market, or the technology behind it.

While many are now wary of get-rich-quick crypto investments, pump-and-dumps are still easy to find on social media. Investors in the $HAWK meme coin, based on viral influencer Hailey “Hawk Tuah girl” Welch, sued its creators just last month. “Pig butchering” scams, wherein victims are targetted with fake dating profiles and lured to invest money by their romantic interests, have become a market worth billions of dollars. These are particularly concerning, as the “scammers” themselves are often victims of human trafficking and forced labor at the hands of organized crime gangs.