The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed charges against Randall Crater and Mark Gillespie for allegedly causing people to invest in My Big Coin Pay and for misappropriating more than $5 million from the funds.
In the meantime, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts froze all defendants’ assets. Also frozen counts assets of six other relief defendants including Greyshore, LLC, and Greyshore Technology, LLC and four other persons. The six allegedly received customers’ funds without providing legitimate services, or without interest and entitlement to the funds.
The commission claims the two allegedly deceived people to invest claiming that the coin was traded on multiple exchanges, was backed by gold and was partnering with MasterCard. The commission says the two used the money to buy a home, jewelry, vacations and other indulgences.
They allegedly issued additional coins to hide the fraud. They also caused people to refrain from redeeming their holdings by claiming they had a new exchange deal.
“Defendants allegedly encouraged customers to refrain from redeeming their MBC holdings until MBC was active on this “new” exchange.”
Director of Enforcement James McDonald said customers willing to invest in virtual currencies should perform appropriate diligence before buying into the ideas.
“As this case shows, the CFTC is actively policing the virtual currency markets. And will vigorously enforce the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act. In addition to harming customers, fraud in connection with virtual currencies inhibits potentially market-enhancing developments in this area.”
It is not the first time CFTC has charged cryptocurrency companies on claims of fraud, misrepresentation, and misappropriation. For instance, it recently filed charges against CabbageTech (Coin Drop Markets) and another one called the Entrepreneurs Headquarters.
CabbageTech operators were charged with running Ponzi and deceiving to invest in binary options. This is to have deceived customers to send funds to CDM in exchange for real-time virtual currency trading advice and for virtual currency purchasing and trading on behalf of the customers.
Source of the article: https://coinpedia.org/news/u-s-cftc-charges-big-coin-pay-operators-fraud-ponzi-claims
