SocialFi Platform Founder Arrested on Strangulation Charges Amid Rug Pull Lawsuit

Gate News message, April 23 — Benjamin Pasternak, 26, founder of a Solana-based SocialFi platform, was arrested on Tuesday on charges of second-degree strangulation and third-degree assault, according to New York Criminal Court records. The arrest followed an incident on March 31. Pasternak pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to appear in court on June 11.

The platform allows users to buy and trade tokens associated with creators and influencers. According to Coingecko data, the platform's native token has collapsed 99.7% from its May 2025 peak, now trading at $0.0007009. The token fell 24% in the past 24 hours.

A class-action lawsuit filed on March 23 alleges that Pasternak orchestrated a rug pull, causing hundreds of millions of dollars in investor losses. The suit claims the team forced a migration from the original Launchcoin token to a new token last October, creating 333 million new tokens for insiders and diluting existing holdings by approximately one-third. Tokens from users who did not migrate were destroyed. The complaint alleges Pasternak disappeared after the forced migration, providing no updates to investors. It remains unclear whether the arrest is directly connected to the civil lawsuit.