CHICAGO – A Texas man has been convicted of orchestrating a cryptocurrency scheme that swindled nearly 1,000 people out of at least $14 million.
What we know:
Robert Dunlap, 54, of Houston, was convicted on two counts of mail fraud on Monday after a week-long trial.
According to officials, Dunlap worked with others to market and sell a digital asset called “Meta-1-Coin” through “Meta-1-Coin Trust,” from 2018 through 2023.
Dunlap claimed that Meta-1-Coin was backed by as much as $1 billion in art and $44 billion in gold, according to a fake accounting firm. The fake art collection had been claimed to include works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Vincent van Gogh, and many others.
Dunlap used automated trading bots to inflate the market price and trading volume of the Meta-1-Coin on the “Meta Exchange,” a website created by Dunlap.
His scheme caused nearly 1,000 investors to lose at least $14 million.
What’s next:
His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 17, 2026. Dunlap faces a maximum of 40 years in federal prison.
The Source: Details for this story were provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Illinois.