A Washington state pastor has been indicted on 26 counts of fraud by a federal grand jury for allegedly defrauding over 1,500 investors through a fraudulent crypto scheme he called Solano Fi.

The Justice Department also questioned Pastor Francier Obando Pinillo at the federal court in Washington for allegedly using his authority as a pastor to pump his congregants for money in the form of cryptocurrency investments.

Pastor Francier Obando Pinillo claimed that the idea for Solano Fi came to him in a dream and that it was a safe and guaranteed investment.

A church pyramid schemes

The 51-year-old was a pastor at a Spanish-language church in Pasco, Washington, where he reportedly used his position and social media platforms, such as Solano Fi’s Facebook page and a Telegram group named “Multimillionarios SolanoFi,”to create a pyramid scheme.

Pinillo first started operating on his own church congregation, promising them that the Solano Fi platform is able to help them trade Bitcoin, Ether, and other cryptocurrencies and earn a monthly return of up to 35%.

In order not to raise suspicion, the platform also fabricated fake account balances and fake returns to create the illusion that the website was profiting. But in reality, the Solano Fi app was never actually functional, and all the money thrown into the scheme was going directly into Pinillo's pocket. When the victims asked to receive their money back, they were met with threats and demands to expand the pyramid scheme.

According to the Justice Department, Pinillo only allowed his investors withdraw their funds if they brought in new investors to buy out their accounts. Prosecutors also claimed that victims were falsely incentivized with additional returns for every new investor they brought into the scheme.

The indictment alleges that when victims tried to remove their assets from Solano Fi, Pinillo dismissed their request, saying he could not return the assets until cryptocurrency market improved or because the website or application was down.

Solano Fi ran for almost three years, from November 2021 till October 2023, and swindled a total of $6 million from its victims. The 51-year-old pastor faces 26 counts of fraud. Each count carries a maximum of 20 years in prison, though defendants rarely see that amount of time.

Washington US Attorney Vanessa Waldref said her office is committed to recovering as much of the stolen funds as possible, but acknowledged that doing so might be challenging due to the nature of crypto accounts.