The former pastor of a Pasco church is back in jail after accusations he committed fraud and tampered with witnesses while awaiting trial in a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency fraud case in federal court.
Francier Obando Pinillo, the owner and pastor of Tiempo de Poder Church in Pasco, is accused of contacting alleged victims in the case and of fraudulently soliciting funds for a fake orphanage through Facebook, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy Kelley in Eastern Washington.
Both violate the terms of his release from jail pending the outcome of the case or give suspicion that he violated federal law, prosecutors argued Tuesday at a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Goeke at the U.S. Courthouse in Richland.
Pinillo pleaded innocent in January to wire fraud after being accused of collecting $5.9 million from church members and others promised risk-free cryptocurrency investments.
A court document said the scheme involved hundreds and possibly more than 1,000 alleged victims.
He guaranteed monthly returns as high as 40% in his cryptocurrency investment business “Solano Fi,” according to court documents.
But instead of investing the money, Pinillo, 52, diverted it into accounts he and unidentified co-schemers owned, court documents allege.U.S. court documents say this is one of four Facebook accounts the FBI believes are used by Francier Obando Pinillo, who is a ccused of a cryptocurrency scheme. Eastern Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office via court documents Conditions of jail release
Pinillo was arrested Dec. 5 in Miami, where he was most recently living, after being indicted in U.S. Eastern Washington District Court on 25 counts of wire fraud and one count of unlicensed money transmitting business.
Then he was released on a $10,000 cash bail, with conditions imposed by a Florida federal court that included he avoid all victims or witnesses to his alleged crimes.
In January, the Eastern Washington U.S. District Court increased requirements for him to remain out of jail, including not soliciting money to invest by any means.
He was arrested again in Miami on March 11 based on allegations he contacted a victim, and two more allegations have been made since then that he has violated his release conditions.
On Tuesday, Goeke ordered him to remain in the Benton County jail, where he had been held since June 10 awaiting Tuesday’s hearing. He also added more pretrial conditions Pinillo is required to follow.
“Mr. Pinillo is unlikely to abide by any condition or combination of conditions for release,” the judge said. “There is a serious danger to the community.”
He is at high risk for fleeing the country, U.S. Assistant Attorney Jeremy Kelley told the judge.
From Columbia, he is not a U.S. Citizen and likely will be deported whether he is convicted or not, Kelley said. Substantial amounts of the money that alleged victims invested in his cryptocurrency company have not been recovered, which could give him the means to leave the country.Photos posted on a Facebook page that asked people posting comments to donate to God’s Time Orphanage Home Foundation were taken from another orphanage or newspaper articles, according to court documents. Eastern Washington U.S. Attorney’s Office via court documents Orphanage fraud alleged
While interviewing victims in the investment fraud case, the Federal Bureau of Investigations learned that Pinillo was soliciting money on social media.
On one of four Facebook pages the FBI linked to him, he posted a reel that included images of a supposed orphanage and orphans, according to a court document.
An account under the name “Francier Obando” replied to more than 150 comments on the reel, asking in Spanish for each to donate as much money as they could to God’s Time Orphanage Home Foundation and receive God’s blessing in “total restoration of breakthrough in the life and in the life of your family.”
The FBI was not able to find an orphanage by that name and the photos included in the reel were from unrelated sources, such as the Seattle Times and other newspapers, and a legitimate orphanage. That orphanage, House of Mercy, warns on its website that people used its name and photos to commit fraud.
PInillo’s attorney, Maia Robbins of Seattle argued this week that soliciting money for an orphanage did not violate the conditions of his release, because money was not being solicited for investment. She also argued that the prosecution had not tied him to the email account.
The judge agreed that it was not a violation of conditions for release. But he said it did show evidence that Pinillo may have committed a crime while released from jail and awaiting trial, which was enough to order him to remain in jail.
In two other alleged violations, Pinillo is accused of contacting victims and, in one case, soliciting money.
The people who put their money into Solano Fi have been difficult to identify and work to find them is continuing. But in the process, the FBI has spoken with two alleged victims who have been contacted by Pinillo since he was released from jail in December, according to a court document.
One had invested more than $1.1 million in Solano Fi, expecting a 40% monthly return, according to a court document.
Pinillo is accused of calling him and saying “a little bird” told him that they had made a claim against him, according to a court document.
Pinillo told him that many people were getting calls from the FBI, but not many were cooperating as this investor had, according to a court document.
The investor responded by asking if there was any good news about his money, at which point Pinillo became cold and unfriendly and hung up the phone, according to a court document.
The investor is concerned that Pinillo knew he talked to the FBI “and would have to look over his shoulder now.”
However, the judge ruled it was not a violation of conditions of release because that investor was not on the prosecution’s list of victims submitted to the court and the defense.
In June, the FBI spoke to a victim who was on the list who said she had invested about $16,000 in Solano Fi based on Pinillo’s guarantee of a monthly return of nearly 34%, according to a court document.
She said Pinillo called her from a WhatsApp phone he said he had borrowed because he thought the FBI was monitoring his phone and that he was not permitted to speak to her, according to a court document.
Pinillo told her he was trying to raise $200,000 for Solano Fi to hire a lawyer, which would benefit investors, according to a court document.
He denied accusations that he had stolen investor money, saying the money was actually invested in the legitimate cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the lawyer would help get the money out of FTX, according to a court document.
The judge said the victim’s account that Pinillo used a borrowed phone and said he knew that he was not supposed to be contacting her indicated he knew he was violating conditions of his release from jail pending trial.A screenshot of the Tiempos De Poder Church Facebook page that formerly operated in Pasco. The page has been removed. Allegations of cryptocurrency fraud
A trial for Pinillo is scheduled in March 2026.
Under Goeke’s expanded order for while he awaits trial, he may have no contact with anyone who may be a witness or victim; may not solicit money for any reason from victims; may have no access to social media and can use email only to communicate with his attorney.
The Commodity Trading Commission also has filed a civil suit against Pinillo in federal court. The commission is an independent federal regulatory agency charged by Congress with enforcement of commodity exchanges.
Tiempo de Poder Church met in two strip malls in Pasco, but does not appear to have a physical presence now in the Tri-Cities, and its public Facebook page has been removed.
Between November 2021 and October 2023, Pinillo targeted unsophisticated customers, including members of his church, who had little or no experience in cryptocurrency transactions or the specific type of investment he said he would make, according to court documents. The investments were to include commodity interest trading.
His solicitations for investments were almost entirely made in Spanish, and Tuesday in court a Spanish language interpreter was provided for him.
“As the pastor at his church in Pasco, Wash., and as a guest speaker at other churches, defendant (Pinillo) was able to reach a vast number of potential customers, who believed he was honest and trust-worthy,” according to the civil lawsuit.
Solano Fi had no trading program, but investors Pinillo recruited were given access to fabricated, online account statements that showed balances increasing monthly, according to court documents.
Participants were told they could earn additional returns for recruiting more investors, according to court documents.
Some money from Pinillo’s 1,516 investors may have been used for payments to earlier investors in the nature of a “Ponzi” scheme, according to court documents.
But when some participants tried to withdraw assets from Solano Fi, Pinillo would make excuses rather than payments, according to court documents.