DOJ: Las Vegas Man Charged in $45 Million CoinDeal Scheme

Another person has been charged for allegedly participating in the multimillion-dollar CoinDeal investment fraud scheme that was announced in January.

Bryan Lee, 57, of Las Vegas, allegedly conspired with others in the scheme that defrauded more than 10,000 victims of $45 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a Friday (May 19) press release.

Six other people and their associated businesses alleged to be part of the CoinDeal scheme were charged with violating the Securities Act and the Exchange Act in January.

Lee allegedly conspired with others to defraud investors in companies controlled by Neil Chandran — one of the people charged in January — that were supposedly developing cryptocurrency and other virtual technologies for use in a metaverse, according to the release.

“Chandran allegedly misled investors by falsely promising extremely high returns on the premise that his companies were about to be acquired by a consortium of wealthy buyers,” the Department of Justice said in the release. “As further alleged, Lee was the nominee owner and director of ViMarket [one of the companies controlled by Chandran], and took direction from Chandran for how to disburse investor funds received into ViMarket’s bank accounts.”

Lee and Chandran allegedly misappropriated millions of dollars that the victims had invested, according to the release.

Lee is charged with one count of conspiracy, two counts of mail fraud, one count of wire fraud and three counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property, the release said.

As PYMNTS reported in December 2022, fraudsters have become creative and have fine-tuned their scams and schemes to follow the money and take it away from innocent victims.

“Trust” scams, in which fraudsters pose as family, friends, coworkers or potential romantic prospects, have accounted for about 12% of fraudulent transactions.

Financial institutions, too, have been dealing with fraudsters.

Sixty-two percent of all financial institutions said they had experienced an increase in financial crime. That percentage is even higher among smaller financial institutions, according to “The State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the U.S.,” a PYMNTS and Featurespace collaboration.

The report also found that 58% of financial institutions said the sophistication of fraud schemes had challenged them.