Audrey Strauss, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, sentenced Stefan He Qin to seven years in prison for fraud and embezzlement.
He Qin, founder of the Virgil Sigma Fund LP (Virgil Sigma) and the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP (VQR), a pair of cryptocurrency hedge funds in New York, which claimed to have over USD100 million dollars in investments, has been sentenced to 90 months in prison.
On 4 February, 2021, Qin pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud before US District Judge Valerie E. Caproni, who imposed the sentence.
US Attorney Audrey Strauss says: “According to Stefan He Qin, founder of Virgil Sigma and VQR, a pair of cryptocurrency hedge funds in New York, Virgil had a stated market strategy of ‘market neutral,’ safe investments. Qin’s investors soon discovered that his strategies weren’t much more than a disguised means for him to embezzle and make unauthorised investments with client funds.
“When faced with redemption requests he couldn’t fulfil, Qin doubled down on his scheme by attempting to plunder funds from VQR to satisfy his victim investors’ demands. Qin’s brazen and wide-ranging scheme left his beleaguered investors in the lurch for over USD54 million, and he has now been handed the appropriately lengthy sentence of over seven years in federal prison.”
