The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged fraudster Neil Chandran and several others with organizing a scheme to extort money from tens of thousands of investors worldwide with the false promise that they earns money and pays for the sale of blockchain technology.

Chandran, who was arrested last year on federal fraud charges stemming from the same case, had several businesses and investors scammed out of more than $45 million by agents who claimed to be sharing information about ongoing contracts for technology, known to investors under the name “CoinDeal,” the federal regulator said Wednesday.

The SEC charged Garry Davidson, Michael Glaspie, Amy Mossel and Linda Knott with conspiring with Chandran to violate US securities laws. “We allege that defendants falsely claimed access to valuable blockchain technology and that the impending sale of the technology would generate over 500,000x returns for investors,” said office manager Daniel Gregus. SEC Chicago Regional.

The money was actually used to buy luxury cars, real estate and a boat for the personal use of Chandran and others, in addition to being diverted for his other businesses, according to the SEC and the Department of Commerce. Justice. CoinDeal is also the name of a cryptocurrency exchange run by Adam Bicz and Kajetan Maćkowiak and based in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, since they moved there from Malta in 2021; there seems to be no connection between the two.

AEO Publishing Inc, Banner Co-Op, Inc, and BannersGo, LLC were linked to Chandran’s fraud and allegedly received cash and cryptocurrencies from investors. Investors have been complaining for months on internet forums, including Reddit, that the deal they invested in was a scam, linking it to “Mike G” – another name Glaspie often uses.

The SEC wants to recover more money and plans to sue those people.