The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has ruled that Randall Crater, the owner of the fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme dubbed ‘My Big Coin’ should spend 100 months in prison. This sentence amounts to approximately eight years and four months instead of thirteen years which was expected by federal prosecutors.
These federal prosecutors insisted on the 13-year sentence so that it would serve as a lesson to other bad actors who plan on launching such an attack on unsuspecting investors. Crater, on the other hand, claimed that a 30-month jail sentence was sufficient as a judgment for the weight of the crime he committed. However, U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston was not having any of that.
“Certainly cryptocurrency is a newer enterprise, a newer market, a 21st Century market,” Judge Casper said. “But the scheme at its core was age-old, and that was fraud.”
He is expected to pay almost $7.7 million for damages and restitution. For now, an appeal is expected from the ‘My Big Coin’ founder. After serving his sentence, Crater will be put under additional three years of supervised release.
‘My Big Coin’ Swindled Investors of $7.5M
Between 2014 and 2017, Randall Crater touted the ‘My Big Coin’ crypto project misleading investors with the fact that they would make huge gains from investing in the scheme.
The 52-year-old charlatan incited traders into believing that it runs an exchange where tokens could be traded for fiat and other digital currencies. In the long run, his schemes were uncovered by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Additionally, he told investors that the project was backed by gold and had inked a collaboration with global financial service provider Mastercard. At the end of the day, over 50 entities became victims of the unscrupulous crypto project and ended up losing up to $7.5 million. U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said,
“His lies and deception inflicted real trauma, pain, and hardship on the lives of 55 individual victims and their families who funneled their money into bank accounts Mr. Crater controlled and used to finance his extravagant lifestyle,” and “I hope today’s sentence sends a strong message that fraudsters—in any market—who seek to exploit others will be found and brought to justice.”
