NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – A company purporting to deliver cryptocurrency mining equipment is accused of racketeering in a lawsuit filed by companies it allegedly ripped off.
Bitcoin Ventures 2020, Yasar Corporation and OnePurpose filed their lawsuit in New York federal court on June 10 against Chet Mining, seeking more than $1.3 million in compensatory damages that would then be tripled, in accordance with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
The plaintiffs say they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Chet Mining, which said it would deliver cryptocurrency mining equipment and/or hosting services, the lawsuit says.
Misleading text messages and emails that led to payments through bank wires that were induced by fraud are alleged to help the plaintiffs’ meet RICO thresholds.
The plaintiffs say they haven’t received any services they paid for or refunds.
“Moreover, the totality of the evidence shows that the defendants never intended to provide the goods and services that the plaintiffs bargained for,” the lawsuit says.
“The consistency of the pattern is overwhelming. In case after case, defendant Chet Stojanovich, acting for himself and the corporate defendants, described himself as having a cryptocurrency mining capacity that was fictitious, took money from the plaintiffs (and others) for goods and services he was incapable of producing, and then simply absconded (after a brief period of trying to mask his breaches with falsified reports of mining income, as discussed below).”