A sixth lawsuit has been filed against BitConnect and its top promoters.

Patrick Argiro presents himself as a plaintiff in the February 22nd Florida complaint.

In the complaint Argiro alleges

BitConnect scammed thousands of Floridians and hundreds of thousands of Americans out of millions and millions of dollars.

Named defendants in the suit are BitConnect, Glenn Arcaro, Trevon Brown (aka Trevon James), Ryan Hildreth, Craig Grant, Crypto Nick and Ryan Maasen.

In line with BitConnect’s business model Argiro alleges

Bitconnect was both a pyramid scheme and a Ponzi scheme.

That is, it relied on new money from new users, who were in turn expected to get m ore new users to produce more new money, while not actually engaging in any real activity that would
produce income, profits or benefit to investors.

When the money ran out,

Bitconnect shut down its platform , took aIl of Plaintiff and the Class’s money, and left them with BCC which is either entirely worthless or has significantly less value than Bitconnect promised.

Across thirteen counts, Patrick Argiro accuses BitConnect and the named defendants of

  • tortious interference with contract
  • breach of contract
  • misappropriation
  • conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity
  • unfair business practices
  • breach of covenant of good faith
  • intentional infliction of emotional distress
  • fraud
  • using a false record or statement to get false claim paid material to a false claim
  • violations of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act
  • civil conspiracy
  • forgery and
  • mail fraud

Argiro’s complaint filing was quickly followed by a Motion for Leave to Proceed in forma pauperis.

For those unfamiliar with the term, “in forma pauperis” is ‘given by both state and federal courts to someone who is without the funds to pursue the normal costs of a lawsuit or a criminal defense‘.

In support of his motion Argiro declared he

  • is currently not earning income (wages)
  • has $13,000 in savings and $15,000 in assets
  • is spending $1000 a month on transport assistance and
  • is $30,000 in debt

Oh his $30,000 debt Argiro claims $15,000 is a direct result of his participation in BitConnect.

On the same day Argiro’s in forma pauperis motion was filed it was denied. I suspect due to him having almost $30,000 in combined savings and assets.

That said it’s pretty clear that Argiro’s complaint was not filed by a lawyer.

Among other thing;

  • the complaint is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors
  • defendants are not clearly identified in the party
  • the complaint references Connecticut law for some reason
  • sections of the lawsuit (particularly those pertaining to RICO) are clearly copy and pasted from other lawsuits, as different plaintiffs and defendants are mentioned

Argiro has been given until March 5th to pay the required $400 filing fee.

Although I’m not a lawyer, personally even if he did pay the filing fee I can’t see the complaint getting very far in its current state.

 

Update 8th March 2018 – On March 5th Patrick Argiro paid the requested $400 filing fee.