JPMorgan sued over alleged $328M crypto Ponzi scheme tied to Goliath Ventures

JPMorgan Chase has been sued by investors in Goliath Ventures, with a proposed class action lawsuit alleging the bank ignored “red flags” that the allegedly fraudulent crypto pool raised and helped enable what the complaint describes as a $328 million crypto Ponzi scheme that affected over 2,000 people.

Filed in federal court in the Northern District of California Wednesday, the complaint claims Chase “provided the essential banking infrastructure through which the Ponzi scheme operated,” processing investor deposits, facilitating transfers and enabling payments that allegedly “created the false appearance of legitimate profits.”

Florida resident Christopher Alexander Delgado was arrested last month by federal authorities on wire fraud and money laundering charges tied to his operation of Goliath. That criminal case is in its early stages.

“Numerous red flags made the fraudulent nature of the scheme obvious and known to Chase,” Wednesday’s proposed class action claims. “Despite those red flags, Chase turned a blind eye and continued servicing the accounts used to perpetrate the fraud, earning substantial fees from the hundreds of millions of dollars it washed through Goliath and Delgado’s banking activities at Chase.”

A JPMorgan spokesperson toldCoinDesk that the bank would “decline to comment.”

The complaint, filed by Robby Alan Steele through his lawyers at Shaw Lewenz and co-counsel, states that JPMorgan was the sole banking institution for Goliath. It further states that approximately $253 million was deposited into a Chase account linked to Goliath between January 2023 and June 2025. Roughly $123 million was transferred from that account to crypto exchange Coinbase, while about $50 million was sent to investors as purported returns.

The lawsuit, which does not state a specific damages figure, repeatedly argued the bank should have spotted the alleged fraud from the flow of funds alone.

“From a bank’s perspective, the fraudulent scheme was obvious,” the complaint said. “A fraudulent scheme of this magnitude cannot be run surreptitiously through one bank.”

The suit also mentions JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon’s public criticism of cryptocurrencies, adding it contradicts the bank’s alleged conduct.

“Despite Dimon’s long history of criticizing cryptocurrency,” the complaint said, Chase “knowingly permitted a bank customer—Goliath—to commingle investors’ money at Chase” and use funds from later investors to pay earlier ones “in a classic Ponzi scheme fashion.”