The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), the United States Department of Justice, recently announced 25-year-old cryptocurrency trader Jeremy Spence has been arrested for defrauding more than 170 people. Spence has been sentenced to 42 months in prison for this. Spence had started a crypto fund and told his investors that the fund had made a high profit, but this was not the case at all.
Spence managed the social media accounts of the investment fund, called Coin Signals. He had to appear before a New York state judge and pleaded guilty. Spence also received three years’ custodial release and must pay his victims more than $2.8 million in damages.
Cryptocurrency pyramid scheme
Spence had started the fund with the aim of making a profit for his investors. However, this did not go entirely according to plan and his fund only made a loss. In an effort to hide these losses from his investors, Spence created fake accounts. With the income from new investors, he paid out the old investors. This gave this fund a bit of a pyramid scheme. About $2 million worth of crypto went around this way.
For example, the 25-year-old fund manager indicated in the fund’s online chat group that the fund had made 148% gains, although in reality this was not the case at all.
Arrested by the FBI
The scammer was finally caught in January 2021 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Civil charges were also filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
Spence pleaded guilty in November 2021 and is found guilty of commodities fraud for stealing $5 million from ignorant crypto investors from November 2017 to April 2019. In doing so, he made false promises about making a profit when he was actually making a loss.
However, he said in court that he regretted his actions and has apologized. He said he “came into a world where [hij] was totally unprepared for.†