A Texas man convicted of helping run a cryptocurrency fraud that siphoned $20 million from nearly 1,000 investors was sentenced Tuesday to 23 years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge LaShonda Hunt imposed the sentence on Robert Dunlap, a trustee of the Meta-1 Coin project, and ordered him to pay restitution to the scam’s victims, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Illinois said. Prosecutors said Dunlap remained unrepentant and that his falsehoods grew over time, arguing a stiff sentence was needed to deter similar schemes.
A federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois found Dunlap guilty in November on two counts of mail fraud, each count carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years. Authorities say Dunlap and associates conspired from 2018 through 2023 to market and sell Meta-1 Coin via a Meta-1 Coin Trust while making widespread misrepresentations about the token’s backing.
Prosecutors allege the defendants claimed the token was supported by a $1 billion art collection that included works by Picasso and van Gogh, plus $44 billion in gold. In addition, Dunlap is accused of creating Meta Exchange, a trading site where he and co-conspirators allegedly used automated trading bots to pump Meta-1 Coin’s price and volume.
In March 2020 the Securities and Exchange Commission obtained an asset freeze and emergency relief to stop Dunlap, alleged accomplice Nicole Bowdler and former Washington state Senator David Schmidt from marketing and selling the token, the SEC said.
Authorities say investors were told the coin was risk-free and could produce returns as high as 224,923 percent. In reality, the coins were never distributed and investor funds were diverted to pay personal expenses and luxury purchases, including a Ferrari, according to the SEC and prosecutors.
The case is part of wider enforcement efforts targeting crypto fraud, hacks and decentralized finance exploits. Recent actions by regulators and prosecutors have included charges against alleged hackers and operators linked to major DeFi thefts and scam operations.
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