Christchurch shootings: Attack suspect Brenton Tarrant makes BitConnect claim

The main suspect in the mosque shootings that killed 49 people in New Zealand claims to have dabbled in the world of cryptocurrency.

Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, produced a lengthy manifesto called ‘The Great Replacement’ that has been making the rounds online. In it, he says: “I worked for a short time before making some money investing in BitConnect, then used the money from the investment to travel.”

It was during spells in Europe, Southeast Asia and Asia that he reportedly became radicalised.

Bitconnect was a pyramid scheme which attempted to exploit the crypto boom of 2017. Back in December, one of its cheerleaders, Trevon James, was in the news when he predicted that Bitcoin’s value would eventually be zero, prompting outrage on Twitter.

Florida-based James made a name for himself by advertising BitConnect, which withered away following a cease and desist order. The YouTuber faced disciplinary action from the Florida District Court over his role in promoting it to unsuspecting investors.

After lying low for a few months, he returned to action, confirming that he had been “subpoenaed to testify to the SEC over BitConnect”.

Despite facing a wave of abuse from aggrieved investors who lost out as a result of his actions, James continued to post cryptocurrency analysis videos and comments. In the aforementioned one, he wrote: “10 years from now, it won’t matter if you bought Bitcoin at $4,000 or $3,000………because it will be at $0…If Bitcoin isn’t $10 by 1st January 2020, I will eat my dog’s poop live on YouTube.”