Cryptocurrency trader sentenced for commodities fraud
Spence admitted to luring investors to his cryptocurrency investment scam with false returns of up to 148%
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A cryptocurrency trader was sentenced to 42 months in prison for defrauding more than 170 victims.
Jeremy Spence, who also went by the handle "Coin Signals," previously pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who imposed the sentence Wednesday.
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The announcement came from Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Illustartion of Bitcoin (REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
Spence admitted to luring investors to his cryptocurrency investment scam with false returns of up to 148%.
According to the allegations in court filings, investors who wanted to participate in a fund created by Spence would transfer cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, to him to invest it.
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Spence collected more than $5 million through false representations, including saying his crypto trading had been extremely profitable when, in fact, trading had been consistently unprofitable.
Spence continued to raise money to fund his scheme by generating fictitious account balances, helping to hold off investor redemptions.
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Spence used new investor funds to pay back other investors in a Ponzi-like fashion.