US SEC accuses CoinDeal organizers of fraud

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint with the court against the organizers of the CoinDeal cryptocurrency scheme for fraud and conducting an unregistered ICO.

The SEC indicted individuals Neil Chandran, Garry Davidson, Michael Glaspie, Amy Mossel, and Linda Knott, as well as AEO Publishing Inc, Banner Co. Op Inc and BannersGo LLC associated with CoinDeal. The agency claims that from January 2019 to 2022, the defendants made false claims that investors could earn high returns by investing in CoinDeal, a company that allegedly worked in the field of blockchain.

CoinDeal executives promised that investors would receive a guaranteed profit of 500,000 times their investment from the sale of their technology. Thus, the organizers of the cryptocurrency scheme managed to hold an ICO and raise more than $45 million. However, the CoinDeal technology was never sold, and investors did not receive any payments. Therefore, the defendants are accused of fraud, as well as violations of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act.

“In fact, this was a carefully planned scheme by which the defendants enriched themselves by defrauding tens of thousands of retail investors,” Daniel Gregus, director of the SEC regional office in Chicago, commented on the situation.

According to the SEC, the organizers of CoinDeal used the funds raised to buy cars, real estate and luxury goods. The regulator is seeking a return of funds to investors, a permanent injunction against the investment activities of the defendants, and a fine on CoinDeal.

Recently, the US SEC accused the organizers of the Thor Technologies cryptocurrency project of conducting an unregistered ICO in the amount of $2.6 million and fined them $574,000.