<\/p>\n
A Texas man has been convicted of orchestrating a cryptocurrency scheme that swindled nearly 1,000 people out of at least $14 million.<\/p>\n
A Texas man, Robert Dunlap, 54, of Houston, was convicted on two counts of mail fraud on Monday after a week-long trial. According to officials, Dunlap worked with others to market and sell a digital asset called "Meta-1-Coin" through "Meta-1-Coin Trust," from 2018 through 2023. Dunlap claimed that Meta-1-Coin was backed by as much as $1 billion in art and $44 billion in gold, according to a fake accounting firm. The fake art collection had been claimed to include works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dal\u00ed, Vincent van Gogh, and many others.<\/p>\n
Dunlap used automated trading bots to inflate the market price and trading volume of the Meta-1-Coin on the "Meta Exchange," a website created by Dunlap. His scheme caused nearly 1,000 investors to lose at least $14 million.<\/p>\n
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17, 2026. Dunlap faces a maximum of 40 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n
The Source: Details for this story were provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois.<\/p>\n
The conviction of Robert Dunlap serves as a significant warning to those involved in fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes. The use of fake art collections and automated trading bots to deceive investors is a sophisticated scam that can have devastating financial consequences. It is essential for investors to be cautious and conduct thorough research before investing in any digital asset.<\/p>\n
A: The digital asset was called "Meta-1-Coin."<\/p>\n
A: Nearly 1,000 investors lost at least $14 million.<\/p>\n
A: Dunlap faces a maximum of 40 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n
A: Dunlap’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to the Case A Texas man has been convicted of orchestrating a cryptocurrency scheme that swindled nearly 1,000 people out of at least $14 million. What We Know About the Scheme A Texas man, Robert Dunlap, 54, of Houston, was convicted on two counts of mail fraud on Monday after a week-long trial. According […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-32524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-reports"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/images.foxtv.com\/static.fox32chicago.com\/www.fox32chicago.com\/content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/1280\/720\/ff47d380-gavel2_1441056551803_140744_ver1.0_640_360.jpg?ve=1&tl=1&w=1280&resize=1280,720&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32526,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32524\/revisions\/32526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/chicago\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}