Authored by Helen Partz via CoinTelegraph.com,
JPMorgan is facing a lawsuit for allegedly enabling a $328 million crypto Ponzi scheme run by now-defunct Goliath Ventures.
Investors on Tuesday filed a proposed class action in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, accusing JPMorgan of ignoring suspicious transactions and allowing Goliath to use its infrastructure to collect investor funds.
A separate federal criminal complaint against Goliath CEO Christopher Delgado, however, says investor funds also flowed through a Bank of America account and directly into Coinbase wallets.
Together, the filings sketch a broader picture of how money moved through the alleged scheme while testing how far a major bank can be held civilly liable for servicing a crypto-related business later accused of fraud.
The California lawsuit states that despite JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s repeated criticism of Bitcoin, the bank allegedly failed to prevent crypto scammers from carrying out fraudulent wire transactions.
“Chase, by virtue of its Know Your Customer actually knew that Goliath was acting as a ‘private equity’ cryptocurrency pool operator investing money for investors, without being licensed at all to sell these investments,” the complaint reads.
Complaint focuses on JPMorgan account flows
The US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida announced the arrest of Goliath CEO Christopher Delgado on Feb. 24. He faces a maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison if convicted on all counts.
Prosecutors said Goliath Ventures, formerly known as Gen-Z Venture Firm, operated the scheme from January 2023 through January 2026.
The civil complaint says Chase was believed to be Goliath’s sole banking institution for a period from January 2023 to May or June 2025. But the separate federal criminal complaint says Goliath also held a Bank of America business account. “Goliath obtained at least $328 million from what are believed to be over 2,000 investors,” the complaint states.
Source: Law.com
The complaint also describes money moved from a JPMorgan account to Goliath wallets held at Coinbase.
The investor suit alleges that about $253 million was deposited into JPMorgan account 0305 between January 2023 and June 2025, with roughly $123 million later transferred to Goliath wallets at Coinbase.
The separate federal complaint paints a broader picture, saying investor funds were primarily deposited into the JPMorgan 0305 account, the Bank of America 9136 account or sent directly to Goliath wallets at Coinbase. Prosecutors said about $75 million went into the BOA account and about $62 million was received directly by Coinbase wallets.
“Delgado was a co-signatory on the BOA 9136 account in the name of Goliath,” the criminal complaint states, adding that Goliath directors told at least one investor that Delgado controlled the account.
Source: US Department of Justice
The government also said Delgado was the sole signatory on Goliath’s Coinbase wallets.
More complaints are coming as the team is still identifying victims
The class action suit was filed by a team of attorneys from Shaw Lewenz, Sonn Law Group and Schwartzbaum. The first named plaintiff, Robby Alan Steele, said he invested a total of $650,000, including retirement funds.
Shaw Lewenz’ Jordan Shaw said there would be more complaints to come, as the team is still identifying individuals and entities they believe to be complicit.
“We are being purposeful and precise in who we file against, to be complementary to the receiver and his efforts," Shaw said, adding: “The goal is not to duplicate efforts, but instead to maximize recovery.”