Jon Barry Thompson, the accused of a $7 million cryptocurrency fraud, is expected to plead guilty for the charges brought against him by the United States prosecutors.
In a letter submitted to the court, the prosecutors wrote: “The parties expect to reach a disposition of this matter and respectfully request that the court set a control date in September 2020 for the entry of that disposition.”
This came following a hint dropped by Peggy Cross-Goldenberg, the counsel of Thompson, in April about “substantial progress” being made towards a deposition.
Defrauding clients by making false claims
Thompson was the principal of Volantis, a cryptocurrency escrow company, and accused of defrauding multiple customers with fraudulent schemes involving over $7 million.
Per the US prosecutors, he took $3 million from one of his clients between June and July 2018 after falsely assuring that the Bitcoins were held by Volantis. However, Thompson failed to deliver any digital asset to the victim and stalled the client for days.
He also showed false account statements to the client and sent the money to a third-party entity purportedly in Exchange for Bitcoin without first receiving any of the Bitcoin. The victim never received any digital asset or was refunded.
Thompson also received another $4 million from another client and never delivered the Bitcoins or returned the money, making false claims about the whereabouts.
Arrested last year, the prosecutors charged him with two counts of wire fraud and two counts of commodities fraud. Thompson is looking at a maximum prison time of 60 years - 20 years for each wire fraud and 10 years each for commodities fraud.
He is currently out on bail after paying a bond of $500,000.
The US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also brought civil charges against Volantis.
