CRYPTO CROOKS: BitConnect Episode 2 – Where Is Madeline Bigatton?
CoinDesk Podcast Network
CoinDesk
4.8 • 689 Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2023
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we explore the intricate interplay of events that led to BitConnect’s dramatic decline, and the case of the missing woman just left of center of the scheme.
"Crypto Crooks" is sponsored by Chainalysis.
It takes a lot of concurrent factors to topple an empire – even a fraudulent one.
As we continue the sordid tale of BitConnect’s rise and demise, we talk to early skeptic @BCCPonzi about the financial, technical and plain common-sense issues that plagued BitConnect’s premise from the beginning. We also delve into what exactly happened to Madeline Bigatton, the wife of a BitConnect sales bigwig who mysteriously disappeared off the cliffs of Australia.
Clips:
- BitConnect Annual Ceremony 2017
- Bitcoin swindle: the mystery behind John Bigatton's role in the BitConnect scheme | 7NEWS Spotlight
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“Crypto Crooks” is a CoinDesk Podcast Production. The executive producer is Jared Schwartz, with additional production by Eleanor Pahl, Rob Mitchell, Nora Battelle, Jonas Huck, and Moon Beast. Fact-checking is by Amber Von Schassen, and sound design and music are by Altus Noumena. This show is written and voiced by David Z. Morris.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Crypto Crooks is sponsored by Chainalysis, the leading blockchain data platform. |
| 0:06.0 | Content warning. This episode includes discussions of suicide and suicidal ideation. It seems that John Biggerton never met a get-rich-quick scheme he didn't like. |
| 0:33.0 | Over the years, he turned his megawatt smile and even wider lapels to selling vitamins, foreign exchange trading programs, and gym memberships. |
| 0:43.6 | Selling dreams seemed to come naturally to Bigotin, and he was certainly living proof that they come true. |
| 0:50.2 | His sales skills had earned him a nice life, including a sprawling house in Cars Park, |
| 0:56.1 | a Tony suburb south of Sydney, where he lived with his two daughters and wife Madeline. |
| 1:01.5 | But that was all just prelude. |
| 1:04.2 | By 2017, John Bigotton was selling the biggest dream yet. |
| 1:09.1 | The next Bitcoin. |
| 1:10.9 | Today, we have an opportunity which our kids, and our kids' kids are going to be embracing, |
| 1:16.2 | which is the cryptocurrency, the digital world. |
| 1:19.0 | This is exactly the same as the stock market of the early days, but it's on steroids times 10. |
| 1:25.3 | That's John, delivering an inspirational upsell from BitConnect's first and only annual |
| 1:31.0 | ceremony, which was really a mix of celebration and extravagant sales pitch in Pataya, Thailand, |
| 1:37.5 | on October 28th of 2017. |
| 1:41.2 | Cryptocurrency had just begun to truly capture the imagination of the public around the world. |
| 1:47.0 | People everywhere were fascinated, enthralled, and ready to buy what John Biggerton was selling. |
| 1:53.1 | Hook, line, and sinker. |
| 1:58.8 | But of course, what Biggerton was selling was a lie, an entire stack of lies, in fact. |
| 2:06.3 | From BitConnect's promised investment returns to the magical trading bot that supposedly delivered them. |
| 2:13.3 | Those lies eventually caught up with BitConnect's creators and promoters |
| 2:17.9 | as trusted leaders and governments began asking hard questions. |
... |
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