[2019-06-04] Bitcointopia Founder Sentenced To 21 Months In Prison

[mich]

https://www.21cryptos.com/bitcointopia-founder-sentenced-to-21-months-in-prison/

In another incident showcasing USA’s zero-tolerance policy against illegal trading, a LocalBitcoins trader has been charged by the Government of the USA for conducting an unlicensed money transaction business, as reported in a press release on 28 May.

Report Statement

According to the report, Morgan Rockoons, a resident of Las Vegas has been criminally charged for unlicensed money transaction, and a Bitcoin backed real estate Ponzi scam by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Morgan Rockoons conducted more than 1000 unlicensed transactions until the end of 2017. He has now been sentenced to serve a period of 21 months in federal jail.

Morgan had been under the eyes of San Diego’s police force for several years owing to his massive trading numbers. Morgan was also not registered as a money transactor under the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). After an indictment in November 2017, Morgan was arrested in February.

The arrest didn’t last long, and he got out on bail resorting back to his criminal tendencies with “Bitcointopia,” a cryptocurrency enterprise offering alleged land in exchange for Bitcoin. Users registered on Bitcointopia were scammed and never received the land they were promised. He faced charges again in October 2018 and pleaded guilty to charges of crypto fraud and operating unlicensed money transacting business in March 2019.

All the profits from his fraudulent business, which amounted to over $80,000, will now be forfeited.

Increased Intolerance towards Fraudulent Crypto Activity

Growing intolerance towards fraudulent crypto activity has been rising considerably. In March, the CEO of Cabbage Tech, Patrick McDonnell, was charged for defrauding investors. The company scammed over 10 people of almost $200 000, 4.41 Bitcoin Cash, 206 LTC, 1,342,634 XVG, and 620 ETC. In May, a Ponzi scheme directed by a diamond based cryptocurrency involving over 300 traders and investors from both U.S. and Canada was shut down. Brazil also saw a massive halt of a pyramid scheme that scammed over 55,000 victims.

[milewilda]

An old news which you can also read up here where we do talk about Morgan Rockoons: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5149715.0

Scams are everywhere thats why either as an investor or just simply a dude wh odo make transactions should really be vigilant or aware on whats happening around.

[rodel caling]

According to the news if I'm not wrong the bitcointopia founder arresting and sentence for 21 minths imprison because he is fraudulent case or in short he is scammers, I think he deserve it that punishment.

[shamc]

These scammers never seem to learn. But this is a warning to all the future bitconnect creators where greedy pyramid schemers con innocents out of their hard earned savings

[Lucius]

21 months is prison is just a joke punishment, the authorities in this way send messages to others, but also to this scamer that these crimes actually can be very profitable at the end. What is clearly visible from the behavior of this person is an obvious intention to continue to deal with fraud, even after he was arrested first time.

I'm not familiar with the mode of execution of punishments, but it's possible that he is comes out of prison earlier. I would bet he will continue to do what he was doing before, and now he have some extra time to come up with a better fraud.

[CryptoBry]

21 months is prison is just a joke punishment, the authorities in this way send messages to others, but also to this scammer that these crimes actually can be very profitable at the end. What is clearly visible from the behavior of this person is an obvious intention to continue to deal with fraud, even after he was arrested first time. I'm not familiar with the mode of execution of punishments, but it's possible that he is comes out of prison earlier. I would bet he will continue to do what he was doing before, and now he has some extra time to come up with a better fraud.

Morgan Rockoons is deserving of this punishment and he should have gotten more if I was the judge handling his case. And not because he was doing an exchange business but because he scammed people out of their money for non-existing properties. Scamming should have a minimum of 10 years in prison if we are going to send a strong message to many scammers (more are born every day, I guess) all over the country. And this is regardless if one is using bitcoin or fiat money as mode of payment or transfer of money.

[ene1980]

Bitcoin backed real estate Ponzi scam by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Morgan Rockoons conducted more than 1000 unlicensed transactions until the end of 2017. He has now been sentenced to serve a period of 21 months in federal jail.

It is a smaller sentence in my opinion and this is not the first time he was caught doing these kind of frauds and he must get a bigger punishment for these fraudulent activities, he knows he will be out without any issue with a shorter sentence and so is the reason he is repeating his offence and now with all his loot being confiscated which is known, who knows whether he has hidden loots.
Until there is a harsh punishment for looting people of their hard earned money, there will be people who does that for a living and for their luxury.

[mich]

Bitcoin backed real estate Ponzi scam by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Morgan Rockoons conducted more than 1000 unlicensed transactions until the end of 2017. He has now been sentenced to serve a period of 21 months in federal jail.

It is a smaller sentence in my opinion and this is not the first time he was caught doing these kind of frauds and he must get a bigger punishment for these fraudulent activities, he knows he will be out without any issue with a shorter sentence and so is the reason he is repeating his offence and now with all his loot being confiscated which is known, who knows whether he has hidden loots.
Until there is a harsh punishment for looting people of their hard earned money, there will be people who does that for a living and for their luxury.

I agree that with this light sentence, he will be back out and maybe doing more shady business practices that will land him back in prison
If the government is trying to set an example then I think they need to throw the book at him harder
There are people who would gladly swap 2 years of their life for the ability to fraud others out of millions of dollars.
I dont think this is the type where you lock him up and throw away the key but he will be free in less then 2 years and who knows if he will resort to old tactics

[squatter]

It's annoying how the headlines keep saying "Bitcointopia founder" as if it was a real, legitimate company. It was a short-lived website run by a few neckbeards that scammed a few people.

If the government is trying to set an example then I think they need to throw the book at him harder
There are people who would gladly swap 2 years of their life for the ability to fraud others out of millions of dollars.

He didn't defraud people out of millions of dollars. His profits from the real estate scam amounted to "over $80,000" and is being forfeited.

[Wayan_Pedjeng]

I don't have any sympathy for him (Morgan Rockcoons). He promised real estate in return for investment in the form of Bitcoins, but those who invested their coins never received any land. He is just 28 years old, and should have refrained from making unrealistic promises. But I guess he got too greedy in the end and tried to con the ordinary Bitcoin users.