Dominic Lacroix was found guilty on Monday of defrauding investors of around $15M with his cryptocurrency project PlexCoin. He now faces a heavy fine of up to $10 million, in addition to five years of detention.
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Court of Quebec judge Steve Magnan was clear in his judgment on Monday.
“Lacroix was PlexCorps,” insisted the magistrate, declaring Dominic Lacroix guilty of the three charges against him. His trial opened in January 2023.
The Financial Markets Authority (AMF) accused the founder of PlexCoin of illegal investments, in Quebec as well as outside Quebec, without a prospectus, in addition to having conveyed false information about these investments.
Lacroix, who was not present in court on Monday, promised investors of his new cryptocurrency which was to compete with Bitcoin profits of up to 1,354%. Nearly $15M will have been raised during an investment round from around 15,000 people, who will have been cheated in the adventure.
No doubt
In his decision, Judge Magnan believes that there is no doubt that Dominic Lacroix was the mastermind of the operation and that he was perfectly aware of what he was doing.
He designates him as the architect of the project, in particular because witnesses were able to demonstrate that Lacroix was the one who had written the white paper for the project, intended to deceive potential investors.
“Lacroix was the one who decided the initial value of PlexCoin and what it would reach once it reached different sales levels. He thus let investors dangle incredible profits,” concluded the magistrate, recalling that it was also Lacroix who, “ultimately, profited from the millions of dollars invested in this project.”
Director of information technologies at PlexCoin at the time, Yan Ouellet was also found guilty of the charges against him regarding the implementation of illegal investments. Testimonies from employees convinced the court of his participation in the project, including an email sent in which Ouellet claimed to want to “destroy the current financial system” with his friend and partner.
“We will never stop,” he insisted.
Dominic Lacroix’s partner, Sabrina Paradis-Royer, was also accused in the case, but she was ultimately acquitted of the two charges against her due to reasonable doubt.
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Judge Magnan noted that accounts in his name had been opened and that money had passed through his own accounts, but that Paradis-Royer’s name seemed “widely used by PlexCorps”, possibly without his knowledge.
Imprisonment and fines
Dominic Lacroix now faces a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison. He is also liable to maximum fines of $5M on two counts, in addition to $150,000 on the third count, for a potential maximum total exceeding $10M.
Yan Ouellet is also liable to a maximum fine of $5M and a period of detention.
The Financial Markets Authority welcomed the court’s decision, which it described as “substantial and leaving no room for interpretation.” If the defense argued that cryptocurrency was not subject to its jurisdiction, Monday’s judgment confirms the opposite.
“The important message is whether it’s crypto or any financial product you want to launch, as long as it comes to ROI for those interested, you need to be registered with the “Authority,” recalled Sylvain Théberge, director of media relations at the AMF.
Yan Ouellet detained in the United States
Dominic Lacroix’s co-defendant in the PlexCoin adventure is currently detained in the United States, we learned on Monday.
Yan Ouellet, found guilty of the criminal charges against him before the Court of Quebec, could not be present for the decision of Judge Steve Magnan. Prosecutors from the Financial Markets Authority and his lawyer explained that he was being transferred to Cleveland, Ohio, but there were no further details on his situation.
Ouellet, like Dominic Lacroix and Sabrina Paradis-Royer, was the subject of an indictment issued in July 2020 by the US Attorney’s Office for the PlexCoin fraud. The investigation was led by the Cleveland Division of the FBI.
It has not yet been possible to confirm the circumstances leading to Yan Ouellet’s arrest. The FBI and the US Attorney’s office had still not responded to questions from the Newspaper at the time of writing these lines.