A new class action alleges JPMorgan Chase enabled a $328 million cryptocurrency fraud by ignoring glaring warning signs. The Steele v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. suit accuses the bank of aiding and abetting the massive fraud orchestrated by Christopher Delgado and his company, Goliath Ventures. Delgado operated Goliath as a Ponzi scheme from January 2023 through January 2026, soliciting victims to invest in cryptocurrency liquidity pools, according to a February 2026 criminal complaint filed in Florida. During the scheme, the bank transferred approximately $123 million from Goliath’s business account to cryptocurrency wallets at Coinbase.
The new lawsuit highlights the legal and reputational risks banks face when their customers use traditional bank accounts to run illicit enterprises but the bank fails to notice. It also draws direct parallels to JPMorgan Chase’s past, as the primary financial institution for Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. Robby A. Steele, a California investor who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Goliath scheme, filed the complaint this week on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of Goliath victims. The suit alleges JPMorgan Chase ignored numerous red flags and enabled the fraud to continue, noting that between January 2023 and June 2025 the bank processed about $253 million in deposits for Goliath Ventures.
Steele argued that the rapid transfers lacked a legitimate business purpose and resembled the circular payment patterns typical of Ponzi schemes. Despite these allegedly glaring warning signs, JPMorganChase failed to implement or adhere to anti-money-laundering protocols concerning the investor funds. Instead, the bank continued to service the accounts and collected substantial economic benefits, including account maintenance fees, wire transfer fees and float income.
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