The director of Volantis Escrow Platform LLC and Volantis Market Marking LLC, Jon Thompson, has confessed to committing the multimillion-dollar crypto scam.
In July, the US DOJ has charged Thompson with two counts each for wire fraud and commodities fraud by taking $7 million from clients and then agreeing to provide them with Bitcoin – then, unfortunately, not doing so.
After fourteen weeks, he has pled guilty to one count of the commodities fraud, as announced by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District recently.
The particular case dealt with just one of the multiple clients that Thompson has allegedly defrauded. The unnamed company has sent Thompson $3.25M to buy Bitcoin, believing that Volantis will act as an Escrow account. It then would take dollars from a party, like from Bitcoin to another, and eventually distribute the right amounts back to each party after the transactions have settled.
However, according to the acting Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss;
“While Thompson had pledged not to part with the company’s money until he had possession of the Bitcoin, in fact Thompson sent the money to a third party without first receiving the Bitcoin, and the money was never recovered.”
On the other hand, that is not how an Escrow account operates.
Thru Volantis’ marketing materials, Thompson has claimed that the method will “minimize settlement default risk.” But instead, all it did has cost the company an amount of $3M.
Thompson’s sentencing is scheduled for January 7, 2021.
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