| In SDNY
Stefan Qin Pleads Guilty After Kraken
& CoinBase Accounts Were Frozen in
December
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Feb 4 – Back on December 23,
as covered by Inner City
Press, an asset freeze against
Stefan Qin's Sigma Fund was
sought and obtained by the
U.S. Security and Exchange
Commission.
No defense lawyer
was present.
Inner City Press
covered and live tweeted it, here
and below (and added more on
Patreon here)
Now on
February 4, the US Attorney
for the SDNY has announced
that "STEFAN HE QIN, the
founder of the Virgil Sigma
Fund LP (“Virgil Sigma”) and
the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP
(“VQR”), a pair of
cryptocurrency hedge funds in
New York, New York, with over
$100 million in investments,
was charged with one count of
securities fraud and pled
guilty today in Manhattan
federal court. For
years, QIN stole investor
money from Virgil Sigma and,
in December 2020, QIN tried to
steal investor money from VQR
to pay back his investors in
Virgil Sigma. QIN pled
guilty today before United
States District Judge Valerie
Caproni."
The criminal case
does not yet have a docket
number as of this writing but
the Information / complaint is
now on Patreon here.
It's 7 pm and the
SEC has gotten an ex parte
hearing to freeze accounts,
before U.S. District Court for
the Southern District of New
York Judge Lorna G. Schofield.
"Qin, Virgil
Capital & Sigma Fund 'held
millions worth of digital
assets at 39 trading
platforms." SEC lawyer
Susan Lamarca said she spoke
with defendant's lawyer, who
said they would only appear if
required.
SEC: "This is ex
parte, to freeze assets."
SEC: "Qin
is a citizen and resident of
Australia and part-time
resident of New York. He is
currently believed to be in
Seoul, South Korea and owns
these LLCs through Virgil
Technologies LLC, domiciled in
the Cayman Islands."
SEC: "Qin
claims to use a proprietary
trading algorithm for the
Sigma Fund to generate better
returns that an investment in
Bitcoin." SEC asks:
"defendants to disgorge their
ill-gotten gains according to
proof, plus perjudgment
interest thereon."
SEC lawyer says
the assets are in CoinBase and
Kraken, who are temporarily
maintaining a compliance hold.
But it could end anytime. "It
won't last long."
SEC: we spoke
with both platforms. They
agreed to maintain the hold
for a couple of days.
Now Qin
knows
SEC lawyer: we've
spoken with a lawyer who
represents Qin in another
investigation. We reached out
to him. Judge Schofield: I am
prepared to enter the
temporary restraining order
and freeze the assets of the
entity defendants, and a
document preservation order
Judge Schofield:
I would not put the account
numbers in a public order.
Should I put it in a sealed
appendix?
SEC lawyer:
You do not need to put it in
an order. We may found other
accounts. Numbers are not
necessary at all.
More on
Patreon here.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
SDNY Press Room 480, front cubicle
500 Pearl Street, NY NY 10007 USA
Mail: Box 20047, Dag
Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2020 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com
|
,
