SEC Obtains Emergency Asset Freeze Against Virgil Capital

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it obtained an order imposing an asset freeze and other emergency relief against Virgil Capital LLC and its affiliated companies in connection with an alleged securities fraud relating to Virgil Capital’s flagship cryptocurrency trading fund, Virgil Sigma Fund LP.

• Stefan Qin, the 23-year-old founder of Virgil Capital, has been accused by the SEC of “fabricated records” for failing to redeem $3.5 million in investments and attempting to withdraw $1.7 million in investor funds to pay off Chinese loan sharks, the SEC said.
• The defendants were alleged of misleading investors to believe their money was being used solely for cryptocurrency trading via a proprietary algorithm, while Qin and the entities used the proceeds for personal purposes or for other undisclosed high-risk investments since at least 2018.
• The investors have not been able to get redemptions from Virgil Sigma Fund as early as July and they were told their interests had been transferred to another fund, the VQR Multistrategy Fund LP, which was essentially controlled by Qin as well. However, no such transfers have occurred and the redemptions remain outstanding, according to the SEC complaint.
• The commission also alleges that Qin is actively attempting to misappropriate assets from the VQR Fund and to raise new investments in the Sigma Fund.