The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stopped a cryptocurrency scam perpetrated by a former Washington state senator and two Florida residents who defrauded investors in the United States and overseas.
On Friday, the SEC obtained an asset freeze and other emergency relief to stop former Washington state senator David Schmidt, Nicole Bowdler, and Robert Dunlop, who is doing business as Clear International Trust from defrauding cryptocurrency investors.
The Commission also included Pramana Capital and Peter Shamoun as relief defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in the Western District of Texas.
Defendants falsely claimed that Meta 1 Coin will never lose value
In the complaint, the SEC alleged that Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Dunlop, and Ms. Bowdler encouraged investors to invest in a purported cryptocurrency called “Meta 1 Coin Trust through an unregistered initial coin offering (ICO).
The defendants allegedly made numerous false and misleading statements about Meta 1 Coin. They claimed that the cryptocurrency was backed by a $1 billion art collection or $2 billion of gold, and an accounting firm was auditing the gold assets.
