My Big Coin falsely claimed to have gold reserves, founder sentenced to 8 years and fined $7.6 million

Randall Crater, who previously claimed that My Big Coin was backed by gold reserves, was later proven to be another fraudulent coin. The founder, Randall Crater, was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday and ordered to forfeit $7.6 million.

My Big Coin, which used to claim to have gold reserves and a partnership with Mastercard, was founded by Randall Crater. He also operated the My Big Coin exchange, purportedly allowing trading of other cryptocurrencies with fiat currency exchange channels.

In reality, My Big Coin turned out to be a scam and could not be traded on its own exchange. Randall Crater profited over $7.5 million from investors and users. Throughout the entire fraudulent scheme, the only one who benefitted financially was Randall Crater himself, who used customer funds to buy luxury homes, cars, antiques, and jewelry worth over $1 million.

The press release from the US Attorney's Office described My Big Coin as a shameless fraud scheme that took advantage of the booming cryptocurrency market to promote their worthless coin, defrauding over 55 victims. Ultimately, these individuals' funds were used by Randall Crater to purchase luxury items.

After nearly four years of litigation, Randall Crater was sentenced to 8 years and 4 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and was also ordered to forfeit $7.66 million. The forfeited funds will be used to compensate investors and users.

Joseph R. Bonavolonta, the FBI official in charge of the investigation, stated:

"Randall Crater is nothing but a complete fraudster who swindled over $7.5 million from dozens of victims. This scam caused significant harm, forcing many victims to delay retirement, students to lose tuition fees, and many lives to be disrupted, all because of one person's greed."