Florida man pleads guilty to $55 million investment fraud linked to owner of crypto firm indicted in Nebraska
(WOWT) – A Florida man pleaded guilty Friday to orchestrating a $55 million investment fraud scheme that allegedly involved a man who was indicted last summer by a federal grand jury in Nebraska.
According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Michael Glaspie, 72, of Palm City, Fla., pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud after he tricked more than 10,000 people into investing in a company referred to as CoinDeal during assumption that the opportunity would benefit from an acquisition involving a company called ViRSE.
ViRSE was a company allegedly owned and operated by Neil Suresh Chandran 50 in Las Vegas, whose “metaverse” of companies developed their own cryptocurrency. Among the companies owned by Chandran were Free Vi Lab, Studio Vi Inc., ViDelivery Inc., ViMarket Inc. and Skalex USA Inc.
“In order to entice investors to put money into CoinDeal, Glaspie falsely promised that in case the returns from CoinDeal did not materialize, he would repay the investors their money at 7% annual interest over three years. In fact, Glaspie knew he had no chance to make such repayments, the message states.
Glaspie hinged his deception on a claim that he had “an exclusive and lucrative contract with AT&T to distribute government-funded phones, and that an app he developed was distributed by the Better Business Bureau and would generate over $400 million in revenue.” In reality, he had no such agreements.
According to Friday’s DOJ release, when the CoinDeal sale fell apart, “Glaspie transferred investor funds to Chandran after falsely representing to CoinDeal investors that he would not do so.”
Glaspie also falsely claimed that he never paid himself with CoinDeal investor funds, when in truth he misused nearly $2.5 million of victim investments for personal purposes, including trading cryptocurrency, paying his employees’ salaries, and purchasing life insurance for a family member.
But Chandran was arrested in Los Angeles after he was indicted by a federal grand jury in Nebraska on June 14. Chandrawn faces three counts of wire fraud and two counts of engaging in criminal property money transactions for his role in the scheme, according to an earlier DOJ release.
According to the DOJ, about 100 different assets from bank accounts to real estate to luxury cars — including 39 Tesla vehicles — were subject to forfeiture as proceeds of the fraud.
Glaspie will be sentenced by a federal district court judge on June 16 and could face up to 20 years in prison.
Chandran faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the wire fraud counts and up to 10 years in prison for each count of engaging in illegal money transactions.
“This elaborate investment fraud scheme defrauded more than 10,000 victims of over $55 million,” David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, said in Friday’s release. “Investment fraud schemes of any kind will not be tolerated. The FBI will continue to do what we have done for over 100 years and investigate those who attempt to defraud unsuspecting Americans of their hard-earned money.”
FBI field offices in Omaha assist other such offices in Washington, Las Vegas and Los Angeles and Miami with the cases. Assistant Chief William E. Johnston, Trial Attorney Tian Huang of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and Assistant United States Attorney Donald J. Kleine for the District of Nebraska are prosecuting the cases. US attorneys’ offices in Nebraska, Nevada and the Central District of California also assisted in the case against Chandran.
VICTIM HELP
Anyone who believes they may have been the victim of fraud related to the case against Chandran is encouraged to visit the DOJ website to file their impact statement and learn more about their rights.
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