Fintoch has received a desist and refrain fraud order from California’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI).

As per DFPI’s August 13th Fintoch order;

Beginning at least as early as 2023, Fintoch offered and sold securities in the form of investment contracts in California through general solicitations on its website.

The investments offered by Fintoch were securities that were neither qualified nor exempt from the qualification requirement under the CSL.

The Department has not issued a permit or other form of qualification authorizing Fintoch to sell these securities in California.

Based on the foregoing findings, the Commissioner is of the opinion that the securities offered or sold by Fintoch LLC and Morgan DF Fintoch LLC were subject to qualification under the CSL and have been or are being offered or sold without first being qualified in violation of Corporations Code section 25110.

Pursuant to Corporations Code section 25532, Fintoch LLC and Morgan DF Fintoch LLC are hereby ordered to desist and refrain from the further offer or sale of securities in California, including but not limited to investment contracts, unless and until the qualification requirements of the CSL have been met.

Fintoch is a collapsed MLM crypto Ponzi scheme that launched in 2022.

The scheme was initially headed by “Bobby Joe Lambert”, a fictional CEO played by US actor Mike Provenzano.

Provenzano would later be joined by Fintoch’s Chairman of the Board, “William Thompson”, played by US national Joel Fry.

On Fintoch’s use of actor executives, the DFPI writes;

“Bob Lambert” and “William Thompson” never existed. The two men that Fintoch held out as its CEO and COO/Chairman were actually actors Fintoch hired to play the roles in videos and at some promotional events.

Fintoch drafted scripts for the men to recite and instructed the actors to read from teleprompters. Fintoch also hired actors as extras in some of the other inperson Fintoch events.

DFPI doesn’t state who ran Fintoch but does shed light on its use of rented offices for marketing videos;

Fintoch published multiple promotional videos on YouTube in which “Bob Lambert” and “William Thompson” explained Fintoch’s business and touted the purported success and profitability of Fintoch.

One of Fintoch’s promotional videos purported to show “Lambert” and “Thompson” giving a tour of Fintoch’s Silicon Valley research and development office.

The video showed the office adorned with Fintoch logos and “Fintoch employees” working on computers.

“Lambert” and “Thompson” claimed that the “employees” in the office were busy innovating and experimenting with Fintoch’s blockchain technology, proclaiming that Fintoch’s Silicon Valley office is “where the magic happens.”

In reality, this was a hoax: Fintoch rented the office for a day for the purpose of shooting the video and hired actors to play the “employees.”

Fintoch itself was registered as two Californian shell companies; Fintoch LLC and Morgan DF Fintoch LLC.

Fintoch collapsed in May 2023 following a securities fraud warning from Singapore. While not definitive, this suggests Chinese scammers were being the Ponzi.

Most “Boris CEO” actor Ponzi schemes are run by eastern European scammers. From time to time though we do see Chinese scammers copying the model in Asia.

In August 2023 Fintoch announced a Standard Cross Finance. Also going by SCF Chain, the scam was again fronted by Joel Fry.

Standard Cross Finance collapsed in October 2023.

Total investor losses across Fintoch and Standard Cross Finance remain unknown.