Another crypto fraudster has been removed from the scene as “My Big Coin” founder Randall Crater, 52, of Lake Mary, Florida, will spend his next 100 months behind bars and pay back millions of victims’ funds he looted through his fraudulent crypto company.
According to a press release by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Randall Crater was sentenced by US District Court Judge Denise J. Casper following his conviction in July 2022 for operating a “purported cryptocurrency and virtual payment services company headquartered in Las Vegas.”
Victims Lost $7.5M to “My Big Coin” Founder
According to the investigation, My Big Coin, founded in 2013, was promoted as a virtual asset payment service through a fraudulent crypto coin marketed as a “fully functioning cryptocurrency backed by gold,” luring victims to invest in the coin between 2014 and 2017.
Crater and his agent also advertised “My Big Coin Exchange” as a cryptocurrency exchange where the coins could be swapped for US dollars and other virtual assets and claimed to have a partnership with MasterCard for a credit card.
However, in reality, neither the coin was backed with gold or any other valuable asset, nor was his purported company have any relationship with MasterCard. Similarly, My Big Coin Exchange has nothing to do except trap investors in Crater’s net.
According to United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins, Crater perpetrated a “brazen fraud scheme” that preyed on 55 individual investors and customers, crediting his accounts with over $7.5 million, which he “used to buy a house, cars, and over $1 million in antiques, artwork and jewelry.”
The attorney stated:
“He saw the growing crypto marketplace as an opportunity to create the illusion of My Big Coin as a legitimate service from which investors would yield a profit. His lies and deception inflicted real trauma, pain and hardship on the lives of 55 individual victims and their families who funneled their money into bank accounts Mr. Crater controlled and used to finance his extravagant lifestyle.”
Legal action against Randall Create began in 2018 when his scheme became the subject of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) investigation. DOJ filed criminal charges against Crater in February 2019. A federal jury convicted him of “four counts of wire fraud, three counts of unlawful monetary transactions and one count of operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
Apart from spending eight years and four months in prison, the fraudster was ordered to pay back $7.6 million and “restitution in an amount that will be determined at a later date.”
Crater Always Claimed Innocence
The perpetrator always claimed innocence and continued to do so even after his conviction. In an October 2022 Youtube video, he stated that a credit card for My Big Coin did exist, and some users had also testified about it during the trial.
