Kevin Helms
A student of Austrian economics, Kevin found Bitcoin in 2011 and has been an evangelist ever since. His interests lie in Bitcoin security, open source systems, network effects and the intersection of economics and cryptography.
US Court Convicts Founder of ‘My Big Coin’ in $6M Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Scheme – Regulating Bitcoin News
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 claims, including that the coins were backed by gold and that the company had a partnership with Mastercard.
My Big Coins founder convicted
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that the founder of My Big Coin Pay Inc. (aka My Big Coin), 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, the DOJ alleged.
Crater has been “convicted of four counts of fraud, three counts of unlawful money transactions and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmission business,” the Justice Department said.
Eric Shen, the inspector in charge of the US Postal Inspection Service’s Criminal Investigations Group who worked on the case, commented:
The defendant preyed on victims with what appeared to be an unstoppable rise in cryptocurrency values, when in reality investors were merely funding his lavish lifestyle.
The defendant spent fraudulently obtained money 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] coins was a fully functioning 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 the [the] coins could be easily exchanged for government-backed paper currency or other virtual currencies.” However, the Ministry of Justice emphasized:
In reality, [the] coins were not backed by gold or other valuable assets, did not have a partnership with Mastercard, and were not easily transferable.
In addition, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) brought charges against Crater and My Big Coin in January 2018.
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