A Texas man convicted of helping run a cryptocurrency scam that took $20 million from nearly 1,000 investors was sentenced to 23 years in prison Tuesday.
US District Judge LaShonda Hunt sentenced Robert Dunlap, a trustee of the Meta-1 Coin project, and ordered him to pay restitution to victims, the US Attorney’s Office in Illinois said. Assistant US attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini wrote in the government’s sentencing memorandum that Dunlap remained “unrepentant” and that his lies expanded “over the years,” adding that severe punishment should deter similar schemes.
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois convicted Dunlap in November on two counts of mail fraud, each carrying a possible sentence of up to 20 years. Authorities say Dunlap conspired from 2018 to 2023 to market and sell Meta-1 Coin through a Meta-1 Coin Trust, making false statements that the token was backed by a $1 billion art collection (including works by Picasso and van Gogh) and $44 billion in gold.
Prosecutors allege Dunlap and his co-conspirators used automated trading bots to inflate Meta-1 Coin’s market price and trading volume on Meta Exchange, a website Dunlap created. In March 2020 the SEC obtained an asset freeze and emergency relief to halt Dunlap, alleged accomplice Nicole Bowdler and former Washington state Senator David Schmidt from marketing and selling the token.
Defendants told investors the coin was risk-free and could yield returns as high as 224,923%, but the coins were never distributed. The SEC says funds were diverted to personal expenses and luxury purchases, including a Ferrari.
The case is part of broader enforcement activity against crypto fraud and related offenses. In other recent actions, authorities have charged alleged hackers and operators behind large DeFi exploits and scams.
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