A federal jury has convicted the founder of “My Big Coin” in a fraudulent scheme that defrauded cryptocurrency investors of $6 million. The defendant made several false statements, including that the coins were backed by gold and that the company had a partnership with Mastercard.
The founder of My Big Coin condemned
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Thursday that My Big Coin Pay Inc. (aka My Big Coin) founder Randall Crater has been convicted in a cryptocurrency fraud scheme. The 51-year-old from East Hampton, New York, defrauded investors of more than $6 million, according to the DOJ.
Crater was “convicted of four counts of wire fraud, three counts of illegal money transactions and one count of operating an unlicensed money transfer business,” the Justice Department detailed.
Eric Shen, the inspector in charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group who worked on the case, commented:
The defendant preyed on victims with what appeared to be an irresistible rise in cryptocurrency values, when in reality investors were only funding his lavish lifestyle.
The defendant spent the fraudulently obtained funds on “luxury items for himself, including artwork, antiques and jewelry,” the DOJ said.
My Big Coin was marketed to crypto investors between 2014 and 2017. “Crater and his associates falsely claimed that [the] the coins were a fully functional cryptocurrency backed by $300 million in gold, oil, and other valuable assets. They further claimed that “My Big Coin has a partnership with Mastercard and that [the] the coins could easily be exchanged for government-backed paper money or other virtual currencies. However, the Department of Justice pointed out:
In reality, [the] the coins were not backed by gold or other valuable assets, had no partnership with Mastercard, and were not easily transferable.
Additionally, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a complaint against Crater and My Big Coin in January 2018.
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