The I-Team questioned whether a cryptocurrency lending platform was a scam in November. Two months later, it appears the website crashed.
Bitconnect which is now at the center of what could be a class action lawsuit.
While it sounded too good to be true to some people, it still attracted others like Christopher Mason.
“If it does succeed and it does go at least a year or two, I’ll be set,” Mason said. “You know, my whole family will be set.”
The I-Team interviewed Mason last year about Bitconnect which dubbed itself a cryptocurrency lending platform after the I-Team started looking into it.
Here’s why — Mason claimed his $1,000 investment nearly doubled in just a couple of months and he was getting bonuses for signing people up.
Reporter Vanessa Murphy: “Are you worried, if this is a Ponzi scheme, how this could backfire?”
Chris Mason: “Oh yeah, there’s always that you know but, you know, sometimes you just got to grab life by the horns. And when you see something that’s proven itself and there’s really no reason to doubt it.”
But after users say Bitconnect crashed, Mason told the I-Team, in March, he was onto bigger and better things and “no more interviews.”
Big Bitconnect promoters who had boasted on social media are now staying out of the spotlight too.
“Well, their stuff online vanished,” said Florida based attorney David Silver.
He filed a lawsuit on behalf of former Bitconnect users who say they were ripped off. Silver says Bitconnect stopped letting them withdraw money in January and shortly after, closed down.
“Bitconnect were mom and pops, main street people who watched YouTube and Google ads that talked about Bitconnect,” Silver said.
READ: Lawsuit filed on behalf of six plantiffs
The total from six plaintiffs was $771,000, likely stolen from overseas. But after the I-Team tried reaching someone at the headquarters, we learned it’s unclear from where.
Reporter Vanessa Murphy: “Who runs Bitconnect?”
David Silver: “If I knew that, I’d be a lot happier in where the lawsuit was headed.”
In the meantime, he’s going after those major players who he says made big bucks.
“Glenn Arcaro hired one of the fanciest law firms in the country,” he said. “At a thousand dollars an hour and has been traveling the world like a rock star.”
For now, the search for the people running Bitconnect continues.
“I believe that there is means to recovery,” Silver said. “Whether that’s 10 cents on the dollar I can’t promise my clients. I tell them all the time — you know they invested in something outside the country. This is a hard, long road to recovery.”
He says the red flags were there for what turned out to be a Ponzi scheme.
Even today, after the reported crash, the Bitconnect website remains, but to Silver and his plaintiffs, it’s more like Bitcorrupt.
Silver says he’s received numerous phone calls since he filed the lawsuit from people who say they, too, were ripped off.
