John Bigatton from Carss Park, New South Wales, has admitted in Sydney District Court to promoting a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme through seminars and social media posts over six months. He pleaded guilty to providing financial services without a licence in connection to his promotion of BitConnect from late 2017 to early 2018.
BitConnect, an open-source cryptocurrency operational from 2016 to 2018, ran a high-yield investment program known as the Lending Platform. Users were required to purchase BitConnect’s cryptocurrency (BCC) and invest it for promised high interest rates, with claims of using proprietary technology to trade on cryptocurrency markets. However, it was soon exposed as a Ponzi scheme, using new investors’ funds to pay earlier investors. The scheme defrauded $3.6 billion from 4,000 investors in 95 countries.
Bigatton served as BitConnect’s Australian National Representative and promoted the scheme through social media, seminars, and face-to-face meetings. He has pleaded guilty to providing financial advice without an Australian Financial Services licence. A related charge of operating an unregistered investment scheme was dropped. The case, led by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions following ASIC’s investigation, will see Bigatton sentenced on July 5.
Bigatton was banned by ASIC in 2020 from providing financial services for seven years due to his involvement in the scheme. BitConnect collapsed in January 2018 after a significant drop in its cryptocurrency value and a cease-and-desist order from the Texas State Securities Board, which identified it as a Ponzi scheme. In 2022, BitConnect founder Satish Kumbhani was indicted in the US, and in 2023, a US court ordered $25 million in compensation to 800 victims. Glenn Arcaro, a US promoter of BitConnect, was sentenced to 38 months in prison and ordered to repay $36 million to investors.