- META 1 has been defeated in court by the SEC, who have been awarded a summary judgement in the case
- The SEC were awarded the judgement after the defendants never bothered to turn up to court of file any defense
- The founders and some associates have been banned from offering a security ever again
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has been granted a summary judgement in its case against the mother of all scams, META 1 Coin. The judgement, passed down 11 months after the SEC first filed suit against the “coin for humanity”, effectively shuts down META 1 and orders that all the money raked in by the scam must be paid back to investors, or whatever is left of it, plus penalties. The META 1 scam managed to raise over $9 million from investors both in the US and abroad by telling a pack of ever-evolving lies for months on end based around a project that made audacious claims about its blockchain and the potential earnings. None of the defendants bothered to turn up to court hearings or file any paperwork relating to the case, meaning the SEC will have to work off its own available evidence to decide how much founder Robert Dunlap and the META 1 scammers must pay back.
11 Months in the Making
META 1 first came onto the SEC’s radar in early 2020 when they began receiving word that META 1 was eliciting investments from Americans for a scheme that offered guaranteed returns. An investigation revealed that founder Robert Dunlap and the META 1 team were doing this “through deceptive acts and materially false and misleading statements and omissions, including asserting that investors were purchasing asset-backed digital coins.”
According to the SEC filing of March 16, the META 1 team “enticed investors with the allure of a cryptocurrency” although no token has ever existed. Instead the team spent money on themselves, including purchasing luxury cars while pedaling a nonsense cryptocurrency that they claimed was backed by $1 billion in gold or art.
The SEC filed for summary judgement in November after the accused, founder Robert Dunlap; his partner and trustee, secretary, and director of business development Nicole Bowdler; and senior director of operations and shamanic healer at Ironheart Energy Healing Wanda Ironheart, failed to turn up for court hearings. They also filed no papers in their defense, leading to the judge in the case summarizing that they were not arguing any of the allegations made against them.
META 1 Founders Ignored the Case
The judgement also notes that the META 1 team have staunchly denied all demands made by the court since the case began, while Dunlap himself has ignored several court orders “including contempt orders and a bench warrant for Dunlap’s arrest.” The irony that the META 1 team have been spending the time on the run from the law on creating an $88 online law package would not be lost on a five-year-old child.
In awarding the summary judgment, Dunlap, Bowdler, and Ironheart have been banned from ever offering a security again. They also face disgorgement and penalties, plus interest dating back to March last year, a figure that will be determined on April 5. META 1 once claimed to fullycrypto in an email that their project had “legal superiority in the entire digital asset space”.
Not so much, Robert. Not so much.
