JPMorgan Sued Over Alleged $328M Crypto Liquidity Pool Fraud

JPMorgan Chase has been named in a lawsuit connected to an alleged $328 million cryptocurrency fraud scheme, with a victim claiming the bank failed to detect and stop suspicious activity carried out by one of its customers. The complaint, filed this week in federal court in San Francisco, accuses the largest U.S. bank of allowing a company called Goliath Ventures to use its banking services while allegedly operating a fraudulent investment program tied to decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity pools.

Federal prosecutors recently charged the firm’s chief executive, Christopher Alexander Delgado, with wire fraud and money laundering.

Delgado, a Florida resident, was arrested last month in connection with the case.

Alleged Liquidity Pool Scheme

According to investigators, Delgado promoted investment opportunities that promised unusually high monthly returns by claiming customer funds would be deployed in crypto liquidity pools, automated pools of digital assets commonly used in DeFi trading platforms to facilitate token swaps and generate yield.

However, the U.S. Department of Justice alleges that most investor funds were never placed into liquidity pools as advertised.

Instead, prosecutors claim the money was diverted for personal spending, including luxury travel, property purchases, and entertainment expenses, while some funds were used to pay earlier investors in order to sustain the operation.