U.S. Justice Department is selling $56 million of cryptocurrency that it took as part of an extensive Ponzi scheme investigation against a man who promotedBitConnect is an offshore cryptocurrency lending program authorities said Tuesday.

The Justice Department stated that liquidation of crypto follows the “largest single recovery by the United States of a cryptocurrency scam to date”.

Profits from BitConnect fraud victims will be reimbursed.

Victims of this fraud were encouraged by the Justice Department to go on a website. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdca/us-v-glenn-arcaro-21cr02542-twrTo submit claims for reimbursement of the sale.

The scam is said to have conned thousands of victims in America and around the world out of over $2 billion of bitcoin between January 2017 and January 2018. It offered investors returns up to 40% each month. This was allegedly generated by BitConnect’s volatility trading software.

These claims are a fraud the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a lawsuit in SeptemberBitConnect founder Satish Kumhani and Glenn Arcaro were opposed by BitConnect. Glenn Arcaro was a Los Angeles-based man who led BitConnect to the United States.

“As Defendants known or recklessly disregarded BitConnect’s purported Trading Bot, BitConnect never deployed investor funds to trade with BitConnect,” the SEC said in the suit.

However, BitConnect and Kumbhani diverted investors’ money to their benefit and those of their associates by sending the funds to digital wallet addresses controlled Kumbhani and Arcaro and other promoters including Arcaro Promoters and others.”

According to authorities, the case is the most serious ever brought against cryptocurrency fraud.

Arcaro admitted Sept. 1, to conspiring and wire fraud in connection to the fraudulent marketing of BitConnect’s digital currency exchange and coin offering.

Arcaro (44) earned no less that $24 million in commissions and other payments

Arcaro and other investors were misled about BitConnect’s claimed proprietary technology. They are called “BitConnect Trading Bot and Volatility Software” and claim they will generate huge investment profits trading volatility on cryptocurrency exchange markets.

According to the Justice Department, BitConnect ran a Ponzi scheme that paid BitConnect investors money.

Arcaro is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment. Arcaro is scheduled to be sentenced January 7.

Federal Judge last Friday granted the Justice Department’s Office for the Southern District of California and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California permission to liquidate the cryptocurrency taken from Arcaro. Arcaro consented to the seizing.

According to the SEC, BitConnect was an unincorporated entity that registered four British companies.

According to the SEC’s statement, Kumbhani is a 35-year old citizen of India.