BitConnect’s Craig Grant on the run from US authorities
The SEC filed suit against top BitConnect promoter Craig Grant back in May.
Rather than defend himself, Grant fled the US for Jamaica.
Grant fleeing the US as a result of the SEC’s filed lawsuit was confirmed in a motion filed by the SEC on August 16th.
The Commission staff believes that shortly after the Commission commenced this action, Grant relocated to Jamaica, at an address and for a duration currently unknown.
In their motion the SEC requests an extension of time to serve Grant.
In support of their motion, the SEC states;
The Commission filed its Complaint on May 28, 2021.
On June 1, 2021, Commission staff emailed the Summons and Complaint, and related filings in this proceeding, to two email addresses for Grant, one of which … Grant had previously used to communicate with the Commission staff during the investigation that preceded the filing of the Complaint.
An exhibit accompanying the SEC’s motion shows Grant sharing communication between himself, Treyvon James and UK BitConnect scammer “Roy Murphy”.
The SEC’s motion continues;
Although the Commission received a reply from the other email address claiming it was the wrong address, the Commission received no reply, or delivery error message, from the Grant Email
Address.
In addition to emails, the SEC sent Grant summons documents by mail. The documents were delivered and have not been returned to date.
On June 3, 2021, the Commission also engaged a process server to serve Grant at his home address in Kissimmee, Florida.
The process server attempted service on June 4, and was met at the door by a woman who stated that she was Grant’s former girlfriend.
She also told the process server that two days earlier, Grant had gone to California with the FBI, and that Grant was currently in Jamaica.
Seems kind of odd that if Grant was picked up by the FBI, that they’d just let him waltz off to Jamaica.
Whether Grant and his girlfriend Yuliana Avalos have actually broken up is unclear.
Grant continues to upload videos of Avalos working their Florida bounce house business to YouTube:
Avalos can be seen working with employees. Prior to Grant fleeing for Jamaica he and Avalos worked the business together.
The last bounce house video featuring Grant and Avalos working together was uploaded on June 6th, 2021.
On June 9th Grant uploaded a video showing him eating at Sushi2 in San Diego, California.
The next video Craig Grant would appear in was filmed in Jamaica and uploaded on August 2nd.
Since then Grant has uploaded a series of videos detailing renovations to his new living space.
In one video, dated August 10th, Grant films whilst carrying on a conversation with Avalos.
The footage suggests the couple haven’t broken up and are frequently in contact via video call.
I initially thought this might be a case of lying to federal agents, which is illegal. Reading back though it seems Avalos lied to a process server.
Whether the SEC has since questioned Avalos as to Grant’s whereabouts is unclear.
In one video Grant can be seen in his new space, outside of which a Volkswagen sedan is parked bearing the license plate “3446 JX”.
Grant can be seen driving the same vehicle in another video.
On August 19th Grant uploaded a video titled “Tropical Storm in Jamaica – August 19, 2021”.
In the video Grant stands on what I believe is Main Street, Christiana. Christiana is a town in Manchester Parish.
I believe Grant is staying within short driving distance in this area.
Looking forward, the SEC
has recently engaged the services of an independent investigative firm to locate Grant’s Jamaica address, so that the Commission can effect service of him.
To that end the SEC requested a November extension to effect service on Grant.
On August 17th the court granted the SEC’s motion, giving the regulator until November 24th.
In the event the SEC can’t locate Grant and serve him personally, service will be effected via alternative means.
Update 8th December 2021 – Craig Grant has deleted all videos referencing Jamaica from his YouTube channel.
As such I’ve had to remove two previously accessible links to referenced videos in this article.
Grant deleting Jamaica videos follows the news US authorities are likely looking to indict him on BitConnect related fraud charges.
Tried to piece together a route with some of the driving footage.
Closest I came was [3:36] in the tropical storm video, which looking at Google Maps is Patmore’s Funeral Home to the north of Christiana on B5 (comes up as being in Lorrimers).
B5 continues up to Albert Town so Grant is probably living somewhere off the B5 between Patmore’s Funeral Home, Lorrimer and Albert Town.
Unfortunately there’s no street view to go off. I was able to confirm Patmore’s Funeral Home, Lorrimer due to the two trees outside the building (photo avail on Google Maps).
(Ozedit 8th DEC 2021: Craig Grant has deleted all his Jamaican farmer videos from his YT channel so I’ve had to disable the video link)
At least he has not fled to Dubai, well at least not yet! LOL!
For someone who has done nothing wrong, according to him, his actions say differently.
Actually I thought Treyvon James would bolt first trying to avoid prosecution. Wonder how long before he tries it?
Yeah I was gonna say. Silly Craig, if you want to evade US authorities you have to run off to Dubai.
Jamaica has an extradition treaty with the US if criminal charges are filed (SEC is civil).
Citizenship plays into it. IIRC Grant has dual US/Jamaican citizenship.
Trevon’s got kids and a wife/partner. He’s not terribly intelligent but does seem to have a genuine interest in his family.
Grant comes off as a selfish prick and is shameless enough to bolt and leave his family behind.
Although looking at the ongoing rennos the plan seems to be hope this dies down (it won’t), relocate Yuliana back to Jamaica and then live off stolen bitcoin.
It’s worth noting Grant and Yuliana lived together in Jamaica for a number of years prior to moving to Florida. Some of those years were spent in the same house Grant is re-rennovating.
That VW shouldn’t be too hard to track down if they got serious.
It may be worth noting that Craig Grant’s girlfriend Yuliana Avalos’ law suit against Match.com in 2013 for $1.5 BILLION dollars because Nigerian, Ghanaian and Russian scammers were using her out-of-date modeling photos for the purpose of producing phony “romance scam” dating profiles was dismissed by the court.
Quoting the defense’s legal team in their response:
SD
Trevon _still_ isn’t sure if Bitconnect was a scam, he thinks it was a sound business model. That kind of stupid is a separate breed.
I have a soft spot for James after he gave us that infamous “you didn’t lose your money… well OK you lost all your money” line.
Almost as good as Carlos Mattos.
As a public service:
https://behindmlm.com/companies/bitconnect/top-investor-insists-bitconnect-not-a-ponzi-discourages-bcc-selling/
The video is gone, but the BMLM coverage will always be there. Scroll down to the quotes starting at 1:22 in the video.
Added a mirror link, for the lulz!
Have you or can you make any conclusive connections between those of the BCC scam and the newly revived ECC scam that is currently running?
It seems that they are all in parts with each other just as I discovered another MLM yesterday with bnbbusiness.org it is really starting to seem that anyone using the ‘back-office’ setup is a scam…
Etherconnect/Ethconnet whichever it is called now requires it’s “coin holders” to use a VPN to connect to back-office. Which tells me that they have moved it to a more “private” server where you will need to be on their internal network to even access it.
Other than the obvious use of a similar name and logo branding, no.
Whoever is running EtherConnect was likely involved in BitConnect though. Can’t say what level of involvement till more information comes to light.
The VPN is the usual “run away from the SEC” pseudo-compliance that doesn’t actually achieve anything.
Region blocking never stopped a regulatory investigation into an MLM Ponzi scheme.
Craig is posting videos again, on his Twitter page.
Hard to believe this guy is still on the run.
Honest people suffer more than dishonest ones.
Please get this guy back to the US so justice can be served by the US justice system. Find his location.
twitter.com/craigonesun?s=21
According to Craig’s Facebook he’s in; Rock Spring,Trelawny, Jamaica.
That big mountain area? It fits. Trouble is pinpointing the location.
There’s a few roads in that area with farming lots attached to houses. We don’t get street view though, only blurry satellite photos.
Personally I think if an indictment is dropping, that’ll lead to an international arrest warrant. Jamaican authorities should be able to pinpoint him at that point.
No update?
SEC case is frozen pending the outcome of unspecified criminal actions.
If it’s Arcaro, his sentencing has been delayed to July 1st.