A former employee of the collapsed bitcoin mining company, GAW Miners, is currently under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for fraud. Carlos Garza was issued a subpoena by a federal judge in Massachusetts to be forced to respond to these allegations.
According to the SEC, millions of dollars were lost in possibly fraudulent sales of bitcoin mining hardware by GAW Miners. Carlos Garza is a former salesman of the company and is the brother of the founder and CEO, Josh Garza.
Bitcoin Mining Fraud
Carlos Garza appeared before SEC lawyers in Boston last week for questioning. However, he refused to answer most of the questions. “I’m very scared. I don’t understand, these type of questions, this type of law at all. I want to help, but l’d have to have an attorney present. I can’t afford one at this time, but if I were to get appointed counsel, or retain counsel, then I’d absolutely come back and help,” he said.
The investigation on GAW Miners has been opened early this year, with court filings indicating that the bitcoin mining company took $10 million in sales of Hashlets or cloud-based mining applications. The company had been selling bitcoin mining rigs starting in 2014 then shifted to a cloud mining concept later on, before introducing its own digital currency called Paycoin.
However, speculations of fraud started swirling in the bitcoin community threads on Reddit and elsewhere online that Paycoin is a scam and that GAW Miners is engaging in illegal activities. Around that time, the price of bitcoin has been on a downward spiral, forcing many bitcoin mining companies out of operation.
“The SEC’s application alleges that Garza was a salesman for GAW Miners, and was knowledgeable about GAW Miners’ potential misrepresentations to individuals who purchased shares in GAW Miners’ alleged mining operations, and rights in its new virtual currency. The SEC also alleges that Garza has knowledge that may be relevant to locating the bitcoin and other virtual currency that GAW Miners received as payment,” the SEC filing indicated.