The Department of Justice is selling $56 million worth of cryptocurrency it seized from Bitconnect.

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is selling $56 million in bitcoin confiscated from the “number one marketer” of Bitconnect, the biggest cryptocurrency fraud scheme ever prosecuted criminally. Investors were duped into investing more than $2 billion. The promoter of Bitconnect faces a potential sentence of 20 years in jail.

US Seizes $56 Million in Cryptocurrency From Bitconnect’s ‘Number One Promoter’

The United States Department of Justice stated Tuesday that it would sell $56 million in confiscated bitcoin to pay Bitconnect fraud victims. According to the Justice Department, “the Bitconnect conspiracy is the biggest bitcoin fraud scheme ever legally prosecuted.”

On Friday, United States District Judge Todd W. Robinson granted the Department of Justice and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California’s request “for authority to liquidate approximately $56 million in fraud proceeds seized from the self-described ‘number one promoter’ of Bitconnect, a cryptocurrency, who consented to the seizure.” According to the Department of Justice:

This liquidation is the greatest single recovery by the United States of a bitcoin scam to date. Glenn Arcaro, 44, of Los Angeles, pled guilty on Sept. 1 to “engaging in a vast conspiracy to defraud Bitconnect investors in the United States and internationally, in which investors were duped into investing more than $2 billion.”

The government is “seekiing to compensate victims of the Bitconnect fraud” by selling the cryptocurrency and retaining the revenues in US dollars, according to the DOJ. “The government plans to keep custody of the confiscated profits in cryptocurrency wallets and to utilise them to compensate victims in accordance with a future restitution order issued by the court during sentencing.” Arcaro is due to be sentenced on Jan. 7, 2022, according to the DOJ, and faces a maximum term of 20 years in prison.

Also Read: Valkyrie Will Launch An On-Chain Defi Fund