A federal judge in New York has entered a $5.5 million default judgment against NanoBit Limited and five related defendants for an alleged relationship-investment scam built on a fake crypto trading platform.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on June 16 ordered $5,518,902 in combined restitution, prejudgment interest and civil penalties, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced.
The agency alleged that from September 2023 to June 2024, participants in the scheme posed as financial industry professionals in WhatsApp groups, built trust with investors, and then ordered them to deposit funds into NanoBit.
Although user dashboards showed what appeared to be profitable trades, the SEC alleged that the platform never executed any crypto transactions. At least 18 investors lost nearly $1 million in cryptocurrency and fiat currency, according to the SEC complaint.
The investors’ funds were not used for trading, but instead went to bank accounts in Hong Kong, the SEC said. The participants transferred more than $2 million overseas and misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto assets from investors.
NanoBit also falsely claimed that a subsidiary, NanobitUS Securities, was registered with the SEC and linked to reputable financial companies.
