Audit log

Every state-changing event for BitConnect: moderation decisions on community submissions, plus corrections and updates from the news pipeline. URL-based decisions are designed to carry three independent witnesses — the original source, an Internet Archive snapshot, and a Solana memo signed by our publicly-disclosed publisher key. Archive coverage is still being backfilled, so each decision below reports its own snapshot status rather than assuming one exists.

1. #1publishby system:backfill

   2026-05-14 06:01:52Z
   Score: ? → ? (no score change)
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   ●mainnet-betaslot 419,628,708

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   32PkyRoyjowi…YYoHa5Umcopyexplorer ↗

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   G12rWiJUovmd…CnmaDWKHcopysha256 → base58

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   {"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"6d72d3b3-e619-41b5-aeb6-7f1fbc2842e3","kind":"publish","page_slug":"bitconnect","published_at":"2026-05-14T06:01:52.300Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"BitConnect","sections":[{"content":"BitConnect launched its initial coin offering (ICO) on November 15, 2016. The platform presented itself as an open-source cryptocurrency project offering a lending program where users could lend BCC tokens back to the platform in return for daily interest payments of up to approximately 40% per month compounded. BCC reached an all-time high of approximately \\$463-\\$525 in December 2017.","heading":"Overview and Business Model","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Bitconnect - Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitconnect"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Complaint comp-pr2021-172","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2021/comp-pr2021-172.pdf"}]},{"content":"According to the SEC and DOJ, BitConnect did not deploy investor funds for trading. The trading bot was a sham. Investor funds were transferred to wallet addresses controlled by Kumbhani and co-conspirators. The platform paid earlier investors using funds from newer investors - a classic Ponzi scheme.","heading":"Fraud Mechanics","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Press Release 2021-172","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021-172"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk - DOJ Indicts BitConnect Founder","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/25/us-justice-department-indicts-bitconnect-founder"}]},{"content":"Satish Kumbhani founded BitConnect and directed the scheme. He faces a maximum 70-year sentence and remains a fugitive. Glenn Arcaro served as lead U.S. promoter, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 38 months. Divyesh Darji served as India head and was arrested in 2018.","heading":"Key Personnel","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ - Arcaro Pleads Guilty","type":"court_filing","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/director-and-promoter-bitconnect-pleads-guilty-global-2-billion-cryptocurrency-scheme"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune - Kumbhani Disappeared","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/2022/03/01/bitconnect-founder-satish-kumbhani-disappeared-india-sec-lawsuit/"}]},{"content":"Texas and North Carolina issued cease-and-desist orders in January 2018. BitConnect shut down January 16-17, 2018. BCC lost approximately 92% of its value immediately. BitConnect Ltd was dissolved March 13, 2018.","heading":"Regulatory Actions and Shutdown","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Texas Securities Board C&D","type":"news_article","url":"https://crypto.news/texas-securities-board-issues-bitconnect-emergency-cease-desist-order/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"UK Companies House","type":"official","url":"https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10278342"}]},{"content":"Arcaro pleaded guilty September 2021 and was sentenced to 38 months. Kumbhani was indicted February 2022 on five counts. The SEC filed civil complaints against BitConnect, Kumbhani, and five U.S. promoters. Total alleged losses: \\$2.4 billion.","heading":"Criminal and Civil Proceedings","severity":"critical","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ - Arcaro Sentenced","type":"court_filing","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/us-promoter-foreign-cryptocurrency-company-sentenced-prison-role-fraud-scheme"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Press Release 2021-172","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021-172"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Bloomberg - Arcaro 38 Months","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-17/bitconnect-promoter-gets-38-months-in-2-4-billion-ponzi-scam"}]},{"content":"The scheme defrauded an estimated 4,154-4,500 victims from 95+ countries. Only approximately \\$17.6 million of \\$2.4 billion in losses has been distributed to ~800 victims - about 0.7 cents on the dollar.","heading":"Victim Impact and Restitution","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk - \\$17M Restitution","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/13/bitconnects-victims-to-receive-17m-in-restitution-seized-from-scams-promoter"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CNBC - \\$56M Seized","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/us-selling-seized-cryptocurrency-in-bitconnect-fraud-case.html"}]},{"content":"India's Directorate of Enforcement seized approximately \\$190 million in cryptocurrency and \\$56 million in additional properties in February 2025 - the largest asset recovery tied to BitConnect.","heading":"Indian Enforcement","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk - India Seizes \\$190M","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/02/17/india-s-directorate-of-enforcement-seizes-usd190m-in-bitconnect-fraud-case"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt - India Seizes \\$190M","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/306617/indian-authorities-seize-190-million-bitconnect-crypto-scam"}]},{"content":"BitConnect relied on a multi-tiered affiliate promoter network operating primarily through YouTube. Promoters produced over 70,000 hours of content generating 58 million views.","heading":"Promoter Network","severity":"high","sources":[{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Litigation Release LR-25286","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-25286"}]},{"content":"Multiple analysts identified BitConnect as a Ponzi scheme during 2017, including Vitalik Buterin. Promises of 1% daily returns with no verifiable trading algorithm were widely cited as red flags.","heading":"Early Warning Signals","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitconnect"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Wikipedia","type":"other","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitconnect"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Complaint comp-pr2021-172","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2021/comp-pr2021-172.pdf"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Press Release 2021-172","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021-172"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ - Arcaro Pleads Guilty","type":"court_filing","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/director-and-promoter-bitconnect-pleads-guilty-global-2-billion-cryptocurrency-scheme"},{"credibility":1,"name":"DOJ - Arcaro Sentenced","type":"court_filing","url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/us-promoter-foreign-cryptocurrency-company-sentenced-prison-role-fraud-scheme"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk - DOJ Indicts Founder","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/25/us-justice-department-indicts-bitconnect-founder"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CNN - Ponzi Scheme","type":"news_article","url":"https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/27/business/bitconnect-ponzi-scheme-satish-kumbhani"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Bloomberg - 38 Months","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-17/bitconnect-promoter-gets-38-months-in-2-4-billion-ponzi-scam"},{"credibility":1,"name":"Fortune - Disappeared","type":"news_article","url":"https://fortune.com/2022/03/01/bitconnect-founder-satish-kumbhani-disappeared-india-sec-lawsuit/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"CNBC - \\$56M Seized","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/16/us-selling-seized-cryptocurrency-in-bitconnect-fraud-case.html"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk - \\$17M Restitution","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/13/bitconnects-victims-to-receive-17m-in-restitution-seized-from-scams-promoter"},{"credibility":2,"name":"CoinDesk - India \\$190M","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/02/17/india-s-directorate-of-enforcement-seizes-usd190m-in-bitconnect-fraud-case"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Decrypt - India \\$190M","type":"news_article","url":"https://decrypt.co/306617/indian-authorities-seize-190-million-bitconnect-crypto-scam"},{"credibility":1,"name":"UK Companies House","type":"official","url":"https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10278342"},{"credibility":1,"name":"SEC Litigation Release LR-25286","type":"regulatory","url":"https://www.sec.gov/enforcement-litigation/litigation-releases/lr-25286"}],"summary":"BitConnect was a cryptocurrency lending platform and exchange that operated from February 2016 until January 2018. It raised an estimated \\$2.4 billion from investors worldwide through a fraudulent lending program that falsely claimed to use a proprietary volatility trading bot to generate daily returns of up to 1%. Subsequent U.S. federal investigations confirmed it operated as a classic Ponzi scheme; its founder Satish Kumbhani remains a fugitive as of 2025, while lead U.S. promoter Glenn Arcaro was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison.","timeline":[{"date":"2016-02-15","event":"BitConnect platform launches","source":"Wikipedia","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitconnect"},{"date":"2016-11-15","event":"ICO begins, 4.8M BCC tokens distributed over 46 days","source":"SEC Complaint","source_url":"https://www.sec.gov/files/litigation/complaints/2021/comp-pr2021-172.pdf"},{"date":"2017-12-01","event":"BCC reaches ATH ~\\$463-\\$525, market cap exceeds \\$3.4B","source":"CoinMarketCap","source_url":"https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitconnect/"},{"date":"2018-01-03","event":"Texas issues emergency cease-and-desist","source":"Crypto.news","source_url":"https://crypto.news/texas-securities-board-issues-bitconnect-emergency-cease-desist-order/"},{"date":"2018-01-17","event":"Platform closes, BCC loses 92% of value","source":"Wikipedia","source_url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitconnect"},{"date":"2018-08-18","event":"Divyesh Darji arrested in India","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2018/08/20/senior-bitconnect-promotor-arrested-by-indian-authorities"},{"date":"2021-09-01","event":"Arcaro pleads guilty; SEC files civil complaint","source":"DOJ","source_url":"https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/pr/director-and-promoter-bitconnect-pleads-guilty-global-2-billion-cryptocurrency-scheme"},{"date":"2022-02-25","event":"Kumbhani indicted on five federal counts","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/02/25/us-justice-department-indicts-bitconnect-founder"},{"date":"2022-03-01","event":"SEC confirms Kumbhani has disappeared from India","source":"Fortune","source_url":"https://fortune.com/2022/03/01/bitconnect-founder-satish-kumbhani-disappeared-india-sec-lawsuit/"},{"date":"2022-09-16","event":"Arcaro sentenced to 38 months","source":"Bloomberg","source_url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-17/bitconnect-promoter-gets-38-months-in-2-4-billion-ponzi-scam"},{"date":"2023-01-12","event":"\\$17.6M restitution ordered for ~800 victims","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/01/13/bitconnects-victims-to-receive-17m-in-restitution-seized-from-scams-promoter"},{"date":"2025-02-15","event":"India ED seizes \\$190M in crypto from BitConnect","source":"CoinDesk","source_url":"https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/02/17/india-s-directorate-of-enforcement-seizes-usd190m-in-bitconnect-fraud-case"}]},"v":1}

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2. #2reviewby reviewerreviewer

   2026-08-08 00:44:01Z
   Score: 0 → 0 (no score change)
   The BitConnect investigation page is substantially accurate. Core facts — the $2.4 billion loss figure, Arcaro's 38-month sentence, Kumbhani's fugitive status, the five-count indictment, and the February 2025 India seizure — are each corroborated by primary government sources. The principal factual error is a one-day discrepancy in the Texas C&D date (page says January 3; actual date was January 4, 2018). Four claims are partially supported: the BCC ATH upper bound of $525 is an outlier not corroborated by major price aggregators; the victim-count range of 4,154-4,500 overstates official court documents that cite exactly 4,154; the 40%/month phrasing conflates a daily rate with its monthly equivalent; and the timeline characterizes a media report as an SEC confirmation. No cited URLs appear to be link-rotted, and the Bloomberg source (marked unarchivable) remains accessible via direct web search.
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   {"actor":"reviewer","decided_at":"2026-08-08T00:44:01.196Z","decision":"review","investigation_id":"6d72d3b3-e619-41b5-aeb6-7f1fbc2842e3","new_score":0,"page_slug":"bitconnect","prev_score":0,"reason":"The BitConnect investigation page is substantially accurate. Core facts — the $2.4 billion loss figure, Arcaro's 38-month sentence, Kumbhani's fugitive status, the five-count indictment, and the February 2025 India seizure — are each corroborated by primary government sources. The principal factual error is a one-day discrepancy in the Texas C&D date (page says January 3; actual date was January 4, 2018). Four claims are partially supported: the BCC ATH upper bound of $525 is an outlier not corroborated by major price aggregators; the victim-count range of 4,154-4,500 overstates official court documents that cite exactly 4,154; the 40%/month phrasing conflates a daily rate with its monthly equivalent; and the timeline characterizes a media report as an SEC confirmation. No cited URLs appear to be link-rotted, and the Bloomberg source (marked unarchivable) remains accessible via direct web search.","score_delta":0,"sequence_num":2,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}

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3. #3review approveby judgejudge

   2026-08-08 00:44:01Z
   Score: 0 → 0 (no score change)
   The reviewer evaluated 24 claims and found 19 confirmed, 4 partially supported, and 1 disputed, yielding a disputed rate of 4.2% — well within the approval threshold. The sole disputed finding (claim_findings[22]) is a one-day date error in the timeline: the Texas cease-and-desist is listed as January 3, 2018 when the actual date was January 4. The four partially-supported claims are similarly peripheral: an ATH upper-bound figure not corroborated by major price aggregators (claim_findings[7]), a mathematical restatement of the 1%/day rate as 40%/month (claim_findings[6]), an unsupported upper bound in the victim-count range (claim_findings[18]), and a media characterization overstated as an SEC confirmation (claim_findings[23]). All core fraud allegations — the $2.4 billion loss, Arcaro's 38-month sentence, Kumbhani's five-count indictment and fugitive status, and the February 2025 India Enforcement Directorate seizure — are corroborated by Tier 1 sources including DOJ, SEC, IRS Criminal Investigation, and UK Companies House. No link rot or stale citations were identified. Two high-priority coverage gaps (on-chain wallet tracing; Kumbhani's post-February-2025 status) are noted as expansion opportunities and do not affect the factual integrity of the existing page.
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   {"actor":"judge","decided_at":"2026-08-08T00:44:01.196Z","decision":"review_approve","investigation_id":"6d72d3b3-e619-41b5-aeb6-7f1fbc2842e3","new_score":0,"page_slug":"bitconnect","prev_score":0,"reason":"The reviewer evaluated 24 claims and found 19 confirmed, 4 partially supported, and 1 disputed, yielding a disputed rate of 4.2% — well within the approval threshold. The sole disputed finding (claim_findings[22]) is a one-day date error in the timeline: the Texas cease-and-desist is listed as January 3, 2018 when the actual date was January 4. The four partially-supported claims are similarly peripheral: an ATH upper-bound figure not corroborated by major price aggregators (claim_findings[7]), a mathematical restatement of the 1%/day rate as 40%/month (claim_findings[6]), an unsupported upper bound in the victim-count range (claim_findings[18]), and a media characterization overstated as an SEC confirmation (claim_findings[23]). All core fraud allegations — the $2.4 billion loss, Arcaro's 38-month sentence, Kumbhani's five-count indictment and fugitive status, and the February 2025 India Enforcement Directorate seizure — are corroborated by Tier 1 sources including DOJ, SEC, IRS Criminal Investigation, and UK Companies House. No link rot or stale citations were identified. Two high-priority coverage gaps (on-chain wallet tracing; Kumbhani's post-February-2025 status) are noted as expansion opportunities and do not affect the factual integrity of the existing page.","score_delta":0,"sequence_num":3,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}

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4. #4reviewby reviewerreviewer

   2026-09-09 03:05:07Z
   Score: 0 → 0 (no score change)
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   {"actor":"reviewer","artifact_identity":"5a24d0077764fbaed326e27673deb118","decided_at":"2026-09-09T01:32:46.33797+00:00","decision":"review","findings_count":30,"findings_rows_hash":"0e6d05f38d4d1d82f0a86157daa59cdf36bdfcf5a3f121938e35fe83633b68d9","investigation_id":"6d72d3b3-e619-41b5-aeb6-7f1fbc2842e3","mode":"findings_only_retroactive","new_score":0,"page_content_hash":"98019dc9c32427e23d3b2da6a4d74c5450927e807414d2a94309bbfb1a1ed913","page_slug":"bitconnect","prev_score":0,"reason":"Findings-only fact-check (retroactive anchor of stored findings)","score_delta":0,"sequence_num":4,"submission_content_hash":null,"submission_id":null,"submission_kind":null,"submission_valence":null,"v":1}

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