A cryptocurrency dealer accused of constructing false representations in reference to funds he operated has been charged with commodities fraud and wire fraud offenses. Jeremy Spence, 24, who additionally goes by the sobriquet “Coin Indicators,” allegedly took cryptocurrency price over $5 million from greater than 170 traders.
The US Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York stated Spence lured traders to his alleged cryptocurrency funding rip-off by claiming that his buying and selling of investor funds had generated a return of greater than 148% in only one month. However in keeping with the grievance in opposition to him that was unsealed in Manhattan federal courtroom, Spence’s buying and selling had been “persistently unprofitable” and used new investor funds to pay again different traders—the hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. The grievance alleges Spence distributed cryptocurrency price no less than $2 million to traders from funds beforehand deposited by different traders.
“Spence’s investments not solely failed to achieve his audacious claims, they persistently misplaced cash, leaving a $5 million void in his shoppers’ crypto accounts,” Manhattan US Lawyer Audrey Strauss stated in a press release. “Spence’s alleged conduct ought to strongly sign would-be traders to completely educate themselves within the cryptocurrency ecosystem earlier than falling prey to funding scams promising big returns for small investments which are certainly too good to be true.”
Spence solicited investments for a number of funds, the biggest and most energetic of which have been the Coin Indicators Bitmex Fund, the Coin Indicators Various Fund, and the Coin Indicators Lengthy Time period Fund. Traders seeking to spend money on a fund would switch cryptocurrencies corresponding to Bitcoin and Ethereum to Spence to make the funding.
To forestall traders from making redemptions, and to proceed to lift cash from them, Spence allegedly created pretend account balances that he made accessible to traders on-line that falsely confirmed they have been making a living as a substitute of precisely reporting the buying and selling losses Spence was racking up.
Spence is charged with one rely of wire fraud, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail, and one rely of commodities fraud, which carries a most sentence of 10 years in jail.
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Tags: commodities fraud, Cryptocurrency, Fraud, Jeremy Spence, Southern District of New York, wire fraud
