Carlos Garza, a former employee of a now-collapsed Bitcoin mining company, must respond to a subpoena as part of an ongoing fraud investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled on Tuesday

The implosion of GAW Miners marks yet another example of incompetence and possible criminal behavior associated with a number of firms selling hardware to mine new bitcoins. Previously, CoinTerra, Butterfly Labs, and HashFast have also faced similar legal battles.

The SEC alleges millions of dollars in possible fraudulent sales by GAW Miners—the case could also expand to criminal charges.

Carlos Garza, the brother of Josh Garza, the founder and CEO of GAW Miners, appeared before SEC lawyers in Boston last week for 90 minutes of questioning. During that period, Carlos Garza, a former GAW Miners salesman, not only refused to answer almost every question, but he provided the same answer, nearly verbatim each time:

I’m very scared. I don't understand, these type of questions, this type of law at all. I want to help, but l'd have to have an attorney present. I can’t afford one at this time, but if I were to get appointed counsel, or retain counsel, then I’d absolutely come back and help.

Now, Garza must either invoke some reason why he should not respond to the subpoena, such as invoking his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, or answer their questions. Garza seemingly willfully ignored the questions by Kathleen Shields, an SEC lawyer, including the notification that the SEC does not provide counsel, nor does the government do so in civil matters.

In January 2015, Ars reported on the opening of the SEC investigation into Josh Garza and GAW Miners.

In early 2014, GAW Miners was first introduced to the Bitcoin public and first came about re-selling Bitcoin mining rigs. Later, the company shifted to cloud-based mining (Hashlets), and in early 2015, introduced its own altcoin, dubbed “Paycoin.” GAW also tried its hand at its own cloud-based wallet service (Paybase), and its own online discussion board (HashTalk).

For several months, there has been active speculation amongst the Bitcoin community that GAW may be a scam, or at least could be engaged in illegal behavior. There have been threads both on BitcoinTalk and reddit with titles like “GAW Miners - Liars, Frauds - A brief recap of what we know.”

The SEC notes in other court filings that GAW Miners took in $10 million from the sales of Hashlets alone.

In a statement, the SEC wrote:

…[the SEC] is investigating whether GAW Miners, LLC, and various individuals and entities acting in association with it, have violated the anti-fraud or other provisions of the federal securities laws in connection with GAW Miners' sale of shares in the profits to be derived from its purported bitcoin mining operations and its sales of rights relating to a new type of virtual currency that it created. The SEC's application alleges that Garza was a salesman for GAW Miners, and was knowledgeable about GAW Miners' potential misrepresentations to individuals who purchased shares in GAW Miners' alleged mining operations, and rights in its new virtual currency. The SEC also alleges that Garza has knowledge that may be relevant to locating the bitcoin and other virtual currency that GAW Miners received as payment.

Neither of the Garza brothers responded to Ars’ request for comment.

Joe Mordica, the company’s former chief technology officer, who left the company in January 2015, declined to comment.