Pastor’s $6M Crypto Scam: Betraying Trust of His Own Church Members

In a jaw-dropping twist in the world of crypto, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has taken legal action against Francier Obando Pinillo, a former pastor turned alleged scam artist. On Tuesday, he was accused of masterminding a deceitful multilevel marketing operation that reportedly siphoned off a staggering $5.9 million in cash and digital assets through a bogus “Solanofi platform.”

Promising unsuspecting investors jaw-dropping returns of up to 34.9% every month via a so-called leveraged staking platform, Pinillo reportedly targeted vulnerable investors, including the Spanish-speaking community of a church in Washington, as outlined in a

complaint

filed by the CFTC.

So, what exactly is staking? It’s a method where users lock their digital assets to help networks validate transactions. But according to the CFTC, Pinillo never intended to do any of that.

Instead, Pinillo allegedly pocketed funds from around 1,500 investors, falsely claimed to trade Bitcoin on their behalf, and later asserted that their funds vanished in the notorious FTX collapse. Of the money raised, a whopping $4 million in digital assets was allegedly funneled into 23 “private digital wallets” believed to be based in Colombia.

Mimicking the well-known Solana, one of the top five cryptocurrencies, the Solanofi platform Pinillo pitched never actually existed. Yet, he created a fake dashboard to dupe victims by showing them inflated account balances and supposed profits—essentially keeping the scheme afloat with a Ponzi-like “referral fee” for new investors.

The allegations don’t stop there. Pinillo’s deceitful practices weren’t confined to Washington; he allegedly spread his scam to a mega-church in Florida, where he urged congregants to escape poverty and then pitched the dubious Solanofi platform.

Prosecutors highlighted that Pinillo gained the trust of many potential investors, exploiting his position as a religious figure.

This case echoes a similar scandal involving a Colorado pastor earlier this year, who was charged for promoting a token supported only by divine assurance, highlighting a troubling trend of faith being weaponized in crypto scams.

In a bizarre twist, the meme coin “Smoking Chicken Fish,” which aimed to establish a physical church for its own religion, faced its own scandal in September when its leadership accused its de facto pastor of unethical practices.

While Pinillo never held an account with FTX, the infamous exchange that collapsed in 2022, he did instruct investors to send cryptocurrencies like

Bitcoin

,

Ethereum

, and other popular coins to wallets he controlled.

At one point, he even teased investors with the prospect of a new token, “ShekkelCoin,” meant to represent Christian values, but prosecutors assert that this token never saw the light of day.

Regardless of the excuses Pinillo offered—be it FTX’s collapse or technical glitches with the Solanofi platform—investors were left in the lurch. One distraught woman reportedly pleaded with him at his church for her money back, but her cries went unheard.

In a Facebook post, translated from Spanish, Pinillo stated, “Never has a dark night defeated the power of a dawn. When the storms get worse, it is because the calm is about to begin.” A chilling reminder of the deceptive promises that lured in unsuspecting victims.

Edited by Andrew Hayward