Texas Law Enforcer Who Took Down BitConnect: The Hunt for Crypto Cowboys in the Lone Star State [INTERVIEW]

In an exclusive interview, CryptoSlate spoke with the Director of Enforcement at the Texas State Securities Board, Joseph Rotunda, who has presided over more than a hundred investigations into suspect crypto offerings since a 2017 state-wide sweep that rocked BitConnect with an emergency cease-and-desist order.

The Juris Doctor would likely connect the dots between the often frenzied crypto space and his former days in securities regulation and felony prosecution-where he dealt with everything from burglary, to sexual assault, to equally incarcerable "White-collar" crimes such as tampering with governmental records.

In the Lone Star State, a landmass larger than France, protecting an estimated 28 million citizens from "Scam artists and white-collar criminals" is no walk in the park, says Rotunda.

According to the Pennsylvania native, the state-wide sting unearthed a "Staggering" number of foul players, including the now-defunct poster child of fishy cryptocurrency schemes, BitConnect.

The law enforcer could not legally comment on the meat of the BitConnect saga, yet he did explain that his crew was known to use undercover tactics in cases that "Threaten immediate and irreparable harm" to investors, including for cryptocurrency, real estate, or oil and gas drilling programs.

Where Rotunda's team may rub elbows with state and federal agencies who encounter cryptocurrency in their mission to fight white-collar crime-the forte of the Enforcement Division would be investment fraud.

Due to how hard the division threw the book at BitConnect in its January 2018 cease-and-desist, one could certainly entertain the idea that Rotunda had boots on the inside.

The government enforcement agency has in the last two fiscal years secured indictments charging 32 defendants with up to 68 years in state prison for traditional securities crime, and purportedly has a series of ongoing investigations involving cryptocurrencies.

According to Rotunda, both security token offerings and other cryptocurrencies "May well" constitute regulated securities-and thus needed to be assessed strictly on a case-by-case basis to tick the boxes of any applicable state or federal laws.

Where some would evidently lump legal counsel and compliance in the too-hard basket, Rotunda maintained that the cryptocurrency community can provide regulators with insight crucial to protecting the public "Before-not after-the collapse of a fraudulent scheme"-thinkably, the next BitConnect.