Federal authorities say scammers stole millions of dollars by promising investors access to a blockchain worth trillions.
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a group of people and companies carried out the $45 million fraud, telling investors they could reap substantial returns by investing in a blockchain technology known as CoinDeal that would be sold for trillions of dollars to a group of wealthy buyers.
“We allege the defendants falsely claimed access to valuable blockchain technology and that the imminent sale of the technology would generate investment returns of more than 500,000 times for investors,” Daniel Gregus, director of the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office, said in a Wednesday (Jan. 4) news release. “As alleged in our complaint, in reality this was all just an elaborate scheme where the defendants enriched themselves while defrauding tens of thousands of retail investors.”
The SEC said in the release that the sale of CoinDeal never occurred, and investors never received any money. The commission alleged the defendants misappropriated millions in investor money for personal use, with defendant Neil Chandran purchasing cars, real estate and a boat.
According to the SEC complaint, Chandran had already been indicted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) for wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the CoinDeal scheme.
Also named in the SEC complaint were Garry Davidson, Michael Glaspie, Amy Mossel, Linda Knott, and…
