The founder of a Nevada-based company was arrested on Wednesday on federal charges he participated in a $6 million scheme to defraud people who wanted to buy a virtual currency called My Big Coin that he claimed was backed by gold, Reuters reported. Randall Crater, the principal operator of My Big Coin Pay Inc., was arrested in Florida after being charged in an indictment filed in federal court in Boston with seven counts of wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions. The indictment came after the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission last year sued the company, Crater and three other men and accused them of participating in a fraudulent virtual currency scheme. The lawsuit led to one of the first court rulings holding that a virtual currency could be considered a commodity within the jurisdiction of the U.S. derivatives regulator. That civil case remains pending. Ray Chandler, a lawyer for Crater, said that the 48-year-old was innocent and plans to plead not guilty when he is eventually arraigned. The case against Crater, of East Hampton, New York, is one of several that U.S. prosecutors and regulators have recently pursued amid concerns about fraud schemes targeting cryptocurrency users. Prosecutors said from 2014 to 2017, Crater and others sought to defraud investors by soliciting investments in My Big Coin, which they falsely claimed was backed by gold and could be traded on a virtual currency exchange.
