Benjamin Pasternak, 26, the founder of Solana-based memecoin platform Believe (formerly Clout), was arrested in New York on April 22, 2026, on charges of second-degree strangulation and intentional assault. The criminal case arrives one month after a separate federal class-action lawsuit accused Pasternak and his affiliated entities of orchestrating a fraudulent token scheme that cost retail investors hundreds of millions of dollars. He is scheduled to appear in New York Criminal Court on June 11, 2026.

Pasternak is no stranger to public attention. Named one of Time magazine's most influential teenagers in 2016 and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree in 2021, he previously founded Monkey, a teen video chat app that reached 20 million users, and co-founded Simulate, the company behind the NUGGS plant-based chicken brand. That record of high-profile ventures explains why the Believe case has drawn scrutiny well beyond the crypto press.

The platform itself launched to remarkable early momentum. Within 48 hours of its January 2025 debut, Believe generated $140 million in trading volume and $2.5 million in creator fees, according to reporting by BitKan and Phemex Academy. That rapid rise makes the alleged collapse that followed all the more striking.

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Two Separate Legal Fronts

Prosecutors and legal filings treat the criminal charges and the civil fraud complaint as distinct matters. The class-action suit, filed March 23, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, names Pasternak alongside B24 Inc. and the Believe Foundation as defendants. Lead plaintiffs Joshua Lee of California and Pierre Montmeas of France represent a proposed class of investors who held any of three tokens associated with the platform: $PASTERNAK, $LAUNCHCOIN, or $BELIEVE, from January 2025 onward.

The complaint, filed by Burwick Law, lays out a pattern of alleged deception tied to each token iteration. When Pasternak launched $PASTERNAK on January 24, 2025, he posted on X: "I have 0 ownership in the token." According to the suit, that statement was false and intended to drive retail purchases. The complaint further alleges he made at least 12 separate public promises of a "flywheel buyback mechanism" for the token (a self-reinforcing price-support structure tied to platform fees), none of which were fulfilled.

The $PASTERNAK token was rebranded as $LAUNCHCOIN around April to May 2025. During that phase, the token's price rallied dramatically before collapsing more than 99%, according to the complaint. That collapse set the stage for the forced migration described below. The three-token progression from $PASTERNAK to $LAUNCHCOIN to $BELIEVE sits at the center of the plaintiffs' allegations of an escalating scheme.

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The Migration That Wiped Holders

The most damaging event alleged in the lawsuit was a forced token migration on October 15, 2025. Pasternak announced a 1:1 swap from $LAUNCHCOIN to a new token, $BELIEVE. The migration expanded the total token supply by 33.3%, with roughly 25% of the newly minted tokens directed to insiders, according to the complaint. Investors who failed to complete the swap within a two-week window had their holdings permanently zeroed out. On October 29, 2025, the original $LAUNCHCOIN collapsed approximately 100%, erasing more than $80 million in market value in a single event.

Reporting from Cryptorank.io notes that the civil complaint alleges Believe processed more than $6 billion in total trading volume across its lifespan while extracting approximately $54 million in platform fees from users who ultimately suffered significant losses.

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Where the Token Stands Today

Current on-chain data paints a stark picture. $BELIEVE is trading near $0.00075 as of April 23, 2026, down more than 99% from its all-time high of $0.3569 reached in May 2025. The token's market cap sits at approximately $1.62 million, placing it at rank 2,525 on CoinGecko. Its primary liquidity pool is BELIEVE/SOL on Meteora DAMM V2. In the past 24 hours the price has fallen another 16.6%, extending a 20.2% loss over the past seven days. Circulating supply stands at roughly 1.3 billion tokens.

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Why This Matters Beyond the United States

For retail investors in South Asia and Africa, the Believe case carries direct practical implications. Countries including India, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Pakistan consistently rank among the world's most active crypto markets by adoption, yet their residents have virtually no realistic path to participating in an SDNY class-action as named plaintiffs. Even if a settlement is eventually reached, cross-border distribution of proceeds from U.S. civil judgments is historically limited.

It is worth noting that no on-chain geographic breakdown of Believe token holders is publicly available. The broad South Asia and Africa exposure described here reflects adoption patterns documented across the Solana ecosystem generally, not confirmed holder data specific to Believe.

Believe's launch mechanic made geographic exposure nearly universal. Because the platform reportedly allowed users to create or purchase tokens directly through X replies with no wallet required and no identity verification, its viral spread operated identically whether a participant was logging in from Karachi or Kampala.

The fee extraction model, which the complaint alleges extracted $54 million while holder value collapsed, structurally mirrors what analysts have described as mobile-money-era investment scheme dynamics: a pattern that regulators in Nigeria, Kenya, and India have previously struggled to intercept at the protocol layer.

No regulatory response to the Believe case has been issued by SEBI in India, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Nigeria, or equivalent authorities in other affected markets as of publication. Investors in those jurisdictions seeking guidance should note the absence of any official domestic regulatory action to date.

One important clarification for victims seeking relief: reports of a "$40 million refund" circulating in crypto media refer to a separate DOJ-administered compensation fund for OneCoin victims, with a claim deadline of June 30, 2026. That fund has no connection to the Believe case.

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A Platform Built on Precedent That Keeps Failing

Believe is not the first SocialFi platform to collapse. Rally.io and Friend.tech both offered social token creation tools before being abandoned. Analysts at QuillAudits have noted that SocialFi platforms structurally concentrate information and token liquidity in founders' hands, a design reality that the Believe case has now brought before federal courts in civil proceedings.

The scale of the problem extends well beyond one platform. According to Chainalysis, global crypto scam losses reached $17 billion in 2025, with approximately $6 billion tied to rug pulls and pump-and-dump schemes in the second quarter alone. Solidus Labs has reported that 98.7% of tokens launched on Pump.fun show manipulation signals, and CoinTelegraph has linked a 40% decline in Solana user activity to memecoin fraud. The Believe case is, in that context, one prominent instance of a systemic problem.

For developers building on Solana across emerging markets, the SDNY's willingness to pursue this civil matter signals that U.S. federal courts will reach internationally for founders who target U.S. persons, regardless of incorporation structure or physical location at launch. Forced token migrations that dilute or destroy existing holder value are now explicitly cited in a federal civil complaint as potential securities fraud. Whether the criminal strangulation charges and the civil fraud matter are legally connected or coincidental has not been established in public filings. As of publication, no trial date has been announced in either proceeding. Pasternak has not issued a public statement in response to either legal matter.