Australian Bitconnect Representative Banned From Offering Financial Services For Seven Years

Due to his involvement and promotion with the Bitconnect platform – now widely seen as the second biggest Ponzi scheme in crypto history – John Bigatton has been banned by ASIC from providing financial services.

This decision stems from the fact that Bigatton provided – according to ASIC – unlicensed financial advice while working for Bitconnect from August 2017 to January 2018.

Investigation Still Pending

As a wider investigation into specifics of the company are still ongoing, Bigatton still has the right to appeal the decision with ASIC’s Administrative Appeals Tribunal – although it will most likely be rejected.

However, ASIC’s statement at the moment is the following:

“Mr. Bigatton is not a fit and proper person to provide financial services: is not adequately trained, or is not competent, to provide a financial service or financial services, and is likely to contravene a financial services law.”

Bigatton is believed to have collected at least $100 thousand out of $2.6 billion that Bitconnect had collected from investors – right before Bitconnect abruptly shut down their platform, in what was described at the time the biggest exist scam in history.

Australian authorities commenced their investigation of Bigatton after the platform’s collapse.

His assets were frozen by the Federal Court of Australia in December 2018 – a measure promptly followed by travel restrictions imposed on him a month later.

John Biggaton’s wife, Madeline Bigatton, mysteriously disappeared in March 2018, and an investigation into her disappearance and possible death will be started this year.

Although BitConnect was believed to be crypto’s largest Ponzi scheme, last year the OneCoin scam outdid it by defrauding investors out of approximately $4 billion.