- Coindeal investors were sold the promise of a “trillion dollar” deal, the SEC says
- The founders promised returns in excess of 500,000x and raised $45 million on the back of them
- The whole thing was a scam, which the SEC is now chasing Coindeal’s operators over
The group behind the crypto scam Coindeal, which was last week hit with a charge of selling unregistered securities by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), promised investors that it was on the verge of a deal worth trillions of dollars. According to the SEC, the group, led by Neil Chandran, promised investors that Coindeal’s blockchain technology was going to be so revolutionary that it would be purchased by a group of “prominent and wealthy buyers”. This, of course, was utter nonsense, and the group misappropriated the funds.
Coindeal Made Big Promises
The SEC alleges that Chandran and his cohorts, Garry Davidson, Michael Glaspie, Amy Mossel, Linda Knott, AEO Publishing Inc, Banner Co-Op, Inc, and BannersGo, LLC, conspired to dupe investors out of $45 million by disseminating “false and misleading statements to investors regarding the purported value of CoinDeal, the parties involved in the supposed sale of CoinDeal, and the use of investment proceeds.”
To those who have experience with such things (namely the ICO boom in 2017), the story is all too familiar – no sale of CoinDeal ever occurred, mainly because one was never intended, and no distributions were made to CoinDeal investors. So where did the $45 million go? Two words – lavish lifestyle:
The complaint further alleges that the defendants collectively misappropriated millions of dollars of investor funds for personal use, and that Chandran used investor funds to purchase items such as cars, real estate, and a boat.
It’s honestly like living in 2017 again.
500,000x Returns Promised
The SEC argues that the defendants promised returns of more than 500,000 times for investors, which it says was nothing more than “an elaborate scheme where the defendants enriched themselves while defrauding tens of thousands of retail investors.” Shock horror.
Chandran is already in trouble with the law – in June 2022 he was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice on three counts of wire fraud and two counts of monetary transactions relating to Coindeal, but now he is also the target of SEC action. The SEC’s complaint charges:
- Chandran, Davidson, Glaspie, Knott, Banner Co-Op, and BannersGo with violating the antifraud and registration provisions of the Securities Act and Exchange Act;
- Davidson, Glaspie, Knott, Banner Co-Op, and BannersGo with aiding and abetting certain of Chandran’s violations of the antifraud provisions of the Exchange Act; and
- Mossel and AEO Publishing with aiding and abetting Glaspie’s violations of the antifraud and registration provisions of the Securities Act and Exchange Act.
While the future doesn’t look great for Chandran and his cohorts, it doesn’t look much better for those investors who forked over their money in the genuine belief that they were going to get a 500,000x return.
There’s one born every minute.
