The Federal Court of Massachusetts fined the operators of My Big Coin Mark Gillespie and John Roche, as well as the associated companies, for $ 25.8 million for cryptocurrency fraud.

As follows from the case materials, from 2014 to 2017, the participants of the My Big Coin crypto -scheme mislead the investors in the statements that their digital assets are provided with gold and can be easily exchanged for fiat currencies or other cryptocurrencies. However, as the investigation found out, the infrastructure for such operations was completely absent, and investors were assigned by the organizers of the cryptocurrency and were used for personal needs.

The court noted the high vulnerability of crypto -investors, especially beginners, before such fraudulent projects. The promises of high profitability and the imaginary highly liquid support of fictitious crypto acts attracted victims, but the lack of transparency and regulation allowed the scammers to act for years.

In addition to the fine, the court imposed a constant ban on the professional activities of the defendants, forbidding them to participate in any commodity trade futures (CFTC) markets, as well as conclude transactions related to commodity interests or digital assets.

Earlier, the Massachusetts District Court sentenced the founder of the cryptocurrency scheme of My Big Coin Randall Crater by 100 months of prison and paying $ 7.6 million to injured investors.