AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, July 12 (Our Colorado Times) — Federal prosecutors are planning to drop the criminal case against Matthew Goettsche, the Lafayette, Colorado man accused of helping run BitClub Network, a cryptocurrency mining scheme the Justice Department says took in at least $722 million from investors.
According to court filings cited in reporting, the government is seeking to dismiss the case with prejudice. Goettsche’s lawyers filed a motion on July 8 saying they had reached an “agreement in principle to resolve the pending charges,” and prosecutors told the court in February that a jury trial was still necessary.
The case centers on BitClub Network, which the Justice Department says solicited money from investors from April 2014 through December 2019 by promising returns from cryptocurrency mining and rewarding participants who recruited new investors. Prosecutors said the scheme obtained the equivalent of at least $722 million.
Goettsche was charged in 2019 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and, along with others, conspiracy to offer and sell unregistered securities. The Justice Department said the indictment was returned by a federal grand jury on Dec. 5, 2019, and that arrests were announced days later in Colorado, Florida and California.
A Justice Department spokesperson said the department is in the process of recovering “a substantial amount owed to investors.” Goettsche was identified by the Justice Department as being from Lafayette, while co-defendant Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks was identified as being from Arvada.
