The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged a Nevada man for his role in the multimillion-dollar CoinDeal investment scheme.
recently Press releaseThe DOJ said Brian Lee conspired with CoinDeal leader Neil Chandran to defraud 10,000 investors out of $45 million.
The Nevada resident allegedly misled clients to invest in companies controlled by Chandran by claiming that they were about to be acquired by deep-pocketed buyers.
“Chandran allegedly misled investors by falsely promising extremely high returns that his companies were about to be acquired by a consortium of wealthy buyers,” the announcement said.
In addition, the DOJ alleged that Lee was the named owner and director of VMarket, which claimed to have developed VR and the “metaverse” technologies and associated cryptocurrency.
The federal agency said that while Chandran promised investors “extremely high returns”, Lee followed Chandran’s instructions and diverted investors’ money into WeMarket’s bank accounts.
“Lee and Chandran allegedly embezzled millions of dollars of investors’ funds and spent it on luxury cars and real estate.”
Lee is charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and three counts of engaging in criminally derived monetary transactions.
If convicted on all charges, he faces up to 110 years in prison.
Notably, Lee has yet to plead not guilty and will make his first court appearance immediately.
Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also Was accused Five individuals and three companies associated with Coindeal.
Crypto Scams Proliferate As Markets Grow
As the cryptocurrency market continues to grow, so does the prevalence of scams and hacks targeting victims.
More recently, it was revealed A scam-as-a-service company named “Inferno Drainer” has extorted nearly $6 million worth of crypto assets from users since the beginning of the year.
Similar recent report Has shown that between August 2022 and May, crypto scammers made approximately 3,234 ETH, worth more than $6 million, from fake airdrops.
Last year, the crypto industry lost approximately $4 billion The value of digital assets exposed to hacks, frauds, scams and rig pulls totaled $2,361,000,000 with the five major exploits alone, accounting for 59.8% of all losses in the year.
While hackers accounted for the vast majority of crypto losses in 2022, other types of illegal activity, including scams and frauds, continued to grow and claim more victims.
For example, some scams Capitalized on the World Cup Qatar 2022 schedule to launch phishing websites from around the world designed to steal users’ identities and banking data.