Founder of Solana Token Launchpad Believe Arrested on Assault, Strangulation Charges

3 weeks ago 15

In brief

Prosecutors charged Benjamin Pasternak with strangulation and battle implicit a March 31 incident.
Pasternak was arraigned and pleaded not guilty; his adjacent tribunal day is successful June.
The apprehension adds to mounting ineligible troubles implicit allegedly deceptive token sales.

Benjamin Pasternak, laminitis of the Solana-based token launchpad Believe, was arrested Tuesday and charged with 1 number of second-degree strangulation and 2 counts of third-degree battle with intent to origin carnal wounded implicit a March 31 incident.

Pasternak has pleaded not blameworthy and is scheduled to instrumentality to tribunal June 11, per court records successful the New York State Unified Court System.

The apprehension comes arsenic Pasternak faces civilian allegations, arsenic well. A class action suit filed March 23 successful the Southern District of New York alleges Pasternak claimed "zero ownership" successful the Believe platform's tokens portion ostensibly collecting creator fees connected each trade, reneging connected astatine slightest 12 nationalist buyback promises and executing a token migration that allegedly diluted holders by astir 33%.

The ailment alleges Pasternak "ran the aforesaid play 3 times, nether 3 antithetic token names" crossed $PASTERNAK, $LAUNCHCOIN, and $BELIEVE, arsenic the Believe level processed astir $6 cardinal successful trading measurement and extracted an estimated $54 cardinal successful fees.

Holders who failed to person their tokens by the October 29, 2025 migration deadline saw their balances permanently destroyed, per the filing, which estimates user losses successful the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The suit brings six claims spanning New York user extortion law, California mendacious advertizing statutes, and communal instrumentality theories. Plaintiffs besides question an injunction freezing on-chain assets, including the flywheel wallet and token treasury.

Pasternak co-founded plant-based nutrient institution Simulate successful aboriginal 2018, raising $50 cardinal successful a Series B circular astatine a $260 cardinal valuation earlier selling the institution successful October 2024. He launched his archetypal crypto token the pursuing January.

Late past year, Avi Patel, laminitis of decentralized information marketplace Kled, accused Pasternak of dumping KLED tokens connected the unfastened marketplace successful breach of a backstage OTC-only agreement.

Patel alleged that Pasternak sold much than 1% of the KLED proviso during the project's September app launch, past resumed selling during a aboriginal update. The Kled squad repurchased Pasternak's presumption doubly implicit the counter, reducing his involvement successful the task from 6% to 1.7%.

The Believe platform's autochthonal token has crashed 99.8% since its May 2025 all-time precocious astatine $0.35, and has fallen astir 15% connected the time to a caller terms of $0.0007, per CoinGecko data.

Burwick Law, counsel for the plaintiffs, did not instantly respond to a petition for comment. Decrypt reached retired to Believe for remark but did not instantly person a response.