By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
The regulator will seek to fine appropriately, all the parties involved, and recover whatever is left of the stolen investors’ funds.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has newly charged Neil Chandran and four other associates for orchestrating a fraudulent scheme. According to the press release, Chandran and others successfully convinced tens of thousands of investors around the world about securing a highly profitable deal. The deal revolved around selling fake blockchain technology. However, the false promises eventually saw the bad actors scam their victims for well over $45 million through various intermediaries.
SEC Goes After Neil Chandran and Others
Per the regulator, investors thought they had a rare knowledge of a pending deal for the technology that was called “CoinDeal.” But more importantly, they were allegedly promised massive returns of more than 500,000 times their investments. Daniel Gregus, Director of the SEC’s Chicago Regional Office said:
“We allege the defendants falsely claimed access to valuable blockchain technology and that the imminent sale of the technology would generate investment returns of more than 500,000 times for investors.”
Also, according to the SEC, Chandran did not work alone but had the help of four others. They are Garry Davidson, Michael Glaspie, Amy Mossel, and Linda Knott. Meanwhile, despite promising investors astronomical returns on their money, the partners went on to use the funds to flourish their lavish lifestyle.
According to the SEC and Department of Justice, the partners used investors’ funds to purchase real estate, luxurious cars, and an expensive boat. Some of the funds also went to Chandran’s other businesses including AEO Publishing Inc, Banner Co-Op, Inc, and BannersGo, LLC.
Meanwhile, it should be noted that this is not the first time that Neil Chandran will be linked to irregularities in business. He once pled guilty to securities fraud in a different case, where he was sanctioned by both the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC). At the time, he was found to be involved in unregistered trading.
For now, however, the SEC will be looking to recover whatever is left of the amount scammed. The regulator will also seek to fine appropriately, all the parties involved.
CoinDeal Saga
Recall that the bad actors called their fake technology CoinDeal. But somehow, that is also the name of a crypto exchange owned by Adam Bicz and Kajetan Maćkowiak. And while eyebrows are now being raised concerning a possible connection between the two, none has been established as of the time of this publication.