Robert Dunlap was recently sentenced to 23 years in prison for operating a cryptocurrency scam that stole more than $20 million from close to 1,000 investors.  Between 2018 and 2023 Dunlap sold a digital asset he called Meta-1 Coin which he marketed through social media, seminars and an Internet radio show.  Dunlap told the investor victims of his scam that the token was secured by $44 billion in gold and a $1 billion art collection featuring works of Picasso, Dali and Van Gogh.  He also told investors that the cryptocurrency was guaranteed and capable of generating returns of as much as 224,923% .  He told investors that his coin offering was independently audited and provided his victims with phony records and insurance documents to make his scam appear believable.  All of it was a lie.  There was no gold or art and the website he created for the cryptocurrency, Meta Exchange used automated trading bots to make it appear that the Meta-1 coin was profitable when it was not.

The SEC instituted a civil fraud action against Dunlap in 2020, obtaining temporary orders against Dunlap, but this did little to slow down his actions as he continued to operate his scam on hundreds more investors before he was finally stopped when the criminal case against him proceeded.

TIPS

While it is never appropriate to blame victims for being scammed, there are a number of basic steps that his victims could have taken that would have indicated that Dunlap’s enterprise was a scam.  No one should ever invest in anything until they have independently investigated both the investment and the person offering the investment.  A first step in looking into any investment advisor is to search the FINRA BrokerCheck data base which will tell you if the person touting the investment is a registered investment advisor and whether there are any legal actions against the advisor.  If anyone had looked up Dunlap they would have learned that he was not a registered broker or a licensed investment advisor.  Anyone investing with him after 2020 could have found the SEC civil charges against him for selling unregistered securities and making phony audit documents.

In regard to the Meta-1 Coin investment, anyone looking into it would have found that it was not being traded on any public exchanges. They also would have found that there was no independent verification of any art ownership.

Perhaps the biggest red flag was guaranteed returns of the ridiculously high 224,923%.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive  free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/