A crypto kid had a $23,000-a-month condo. Then the Feds came
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(REUTERS)
Stefan Qin was just 19 when he claimed to have the secret to cryptocurrency trading.
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Stefan Qin was just 19 when he claimed to have the secret to cryptocurrency trading.
Buoyed with youthful confidence, Qin, a self-proclaimed math prodigy from Australia, dropped out of college in 2016 to start a hedge fund in New York he called Virgil Capital. He told potential clients he had developed an algorithm called Tenjin to monitor cryptocurrency exchanges around the world to seize on price fluctuations. A little more than a year after it started, he bragged the fund had returned 500%, a claim that produced a flurry of new money from investors.
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A 24-year-old UNSW dropout, who is facing up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing $US90 million from investors, spent almost all the money on “personal indulgences”, including food, services, rent on a New York City penthouse and real estate investments.
Stefan Qin spent almost all the $90 million he defrauded from investors on “personal indulgences”.
Australian crypto investors in the funds are furious at the level of deception Qin showed in mismanaging the Virgil Sigma Fund and the VQR Multistrategy Fund.
“It’s not like he lost money because the market turned on him. It seems like he’s actually spent $90 million on living his life and investing in crazy shit,” says one investor, who spoke to
Основатель криптофонда Virgil Capital признался в мошенничестве на $90 млн ko.ru - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ko.ru Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SEC Charges 23-Year-Old Crypto Fund Manager with Fraud
Stefan Qin allegedly lied to investors about Virgil Sigma Fund’s strategy, assets, and financial condition.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused the 23-year-old founder of an investment management firm of defrauding investors in the company’s flagship cryptocurrency trading fund by lying about the fund’s strategy, assets, and financial condition.
The regulator filed an emergency action and obtained an order imposing an asset freeze against Virgil Capital LLC and its affiliated companies in connection with an alleged securities fraud relating to its Virgil Sigma Fund. The SEC alleges the fraud was led by Stefan Qin, an Australian citizen and part-time resident of New York, who owns and controls Virgil Capital and its affiliated companies.