Months after the Securities and Exchange Commission charged eight people allegedly involved with orchestrating the $45 million CoinDeal scam, the Department of Justice has gone after another party.
A 57-year-old resident of Las Vegas, Bryan Lee, was charged with conspiring with the main culprit believed to be behind the scam that defrauded over 10,000 investors.
- The DOJ’s statement alleged Lee of working alongside Neil Chandran and other involved parties to defraud investors via one of the companies Chandran controlled.
- Chandran was behind several Metaverse-related entities, including Free Vi Lab, ViDelivery Inc., and ViMarket Inc., that promised suspiciously high returns to investors, which were supposed to be acquired “by a consortium of wealthy buyers.”
“As further alleged, Lee was the nominee owner and director of ViMarket, and took direction from Chandran for how to disburse investor funds received into ViMarket’s bank accounts. Lee and Chandran allegedly misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds and spent it on luxury cars and real estate.” – reads the statement.
- Lee faces several charges, including indictment with one count of conspiracy, two counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud, and three counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.
- He could get up to 20 years in prison for each of the mail fraud, conspiracy counts, and wire fraud, and another 10 for each count of engaging in criminal monetary transactions.
- The SEC charged Chandran and seven others back in January this year for their involvement in the CoinDeal scheme. Chandran was arrested in June 2022.
- Another party, Michael Glaspie, who was responsible for the marketing of CoinDeal, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud earlier this year and will be sentenced in mid-June.