- Meta 1 director Richard Grassie is still diverting investor funds according to a new court filing
- The SEC says that Grassie is using the flow of money coming in for “improper purposes”
- The SEC is still pursuing Meta 1, whose founders raised $4 million through an ICO
Richard Grassie, a director of the ongoing Meta 1 scam and director of water filtration company Richard’s Custom Water Systems, continues to receive and disseminate hundreds of thousands of dollars in investor funds, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In its latest report, the SEC says that the Meta 1 owners are still perpetuating the scam while they continue to dig through financial records to trace where investors’ money is going, although it’s clear that at least some of it is coming to Grassie.
SEC Still Chasing Meta 1 Financial Records
FullyCrypto has been covering the Meta 1 scam since we dubbed it ‘the world’s worst whitepaper’ back in 2020, documenting the SEC’s attempts to shut it down ever since. However, the complexity of the organization, not to mention the raising and sending of money through cryptocurrency, has made it hard for authorities to pinpoint exactly where all the money has ended up.
In its latest report, the SEC noted that while some subpoenas for financial records have been received some are still outstanding, leading to them needing more time to analyze the material. In the meantime however, Grassie, who was promoted last year with a $1.4 million bonus and has 13 convictions for driving offenses under his name, “continues to receive and disseminate hundreds of thousands of dollars in investor funds for improper purposes.”
These funds come from Meta 1’s various fundraising methods, including online law courses, merchandise, and the benefits of a new referral scheme. Grassie himself took over from former director Peter Shamoon last year, who left the company owing $7.6 million in disgorgement to the SEC, not a cent of which has been paid.
Founders Bought a Ferrari With Investor Money
Meta 1 raised over $4 million from investors, money that founders Robert Dunlap and Nicole Bowdler to buy luxury items, including a $215,000 Ferrari, while pretending to have a multi-billion dollar fine art and gold collection on which to base the value of the Meta 1 coin.
For more on the background to the Meta 1 scam, check out our episode of the FullyCrypto podcast all about it:
