Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund Founder Admits to Massive Fraud

A 24-year-old founder of two New York-based cryptocurrency hedge funds with more than $100 million in investments pleaded guilty Thursday to securities fraud.

Stefan He Qin was charged with duping investors by claiming he used a trading algorithm to take advantage of price differences for a number of cryptocurrencies, federal prosecutors said in an emailed statement.

Qin stole investor money from his Virgil Sigma Fund LP, and attempted to dip into his VQR Multistrategy Fund LP to pay back investors in the first fund, prosecutors said. He admitted trying to steal from yet another fund he controlled to cover VQR fund redemption demands, according to the statement.

“The whole house of cards has been revealed, and Qin now awaits sentencing for his brazen thievery,” Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, said in the statement.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-04/cryptocurrency-hedge-fund-founder-pleads-guilty-to-fraud