The Non-Financial Ledger

This is a story about more than just stolen money. It is a story about the theft of trust, the weaponization of hope, and the calculated destruction of people’s futures. The masterminds behind My Big Coin didn’t just drain bank accounts; they targeted the very human desire for financial security in a system that offers less of it every day. They chose a name, “My Big Coin,” to deliberately echo the legitimate cryptocurrency “Bitcoin,” preying on the public’s fear of missing out on the next big thing. They sold a dream of stability and prosperity, a dream many people desperately needed to believe in.

Their lies were specific and deeply cynical. The claim that each coin was “backed with gold” was not a casual deception. It was a targeted manipulation designed to soothe the anxieties of ordinary people wary of abstract digital assets. Gold means security. It means something real, tangible, and safe. An email from defendant Mark Gillespie spelled it out with chilling confidence: “our currency and accounts are backed better than the FDIC backs your money in the bank!” This was a promise of absolute safety, a lie engineered to disarm every rational doubt a person might have had about handing over their life savings.

The cruelty of the scheme is most apparent in its architecture of deceit. The defendants built a fake exchange website where customers could “monitor” their investments. Imagine the experience of those 28 victims. They would log in day after day, watching fabricated numbers climb, feeling the relief and excitement of seeing their hard-earned money supposedly grow. They were invited to participate in the illusion, to watch their own financial ruin play out as a success story. This is a profound psychological violation, turning victims into unwitting spectators of their own fleecing.

The eventual collapse of this scheme meant the collapse of worlds. For those 28 families and individuals, this was not a line item on a spreadsheet; it was a retirement plan destroyed, a child’s college fund vanished, a down payment on a home gone forever. The funds were siphoned off for the personal enrichment of the executives, including the purchase of a luxury home. While victims were staring at fake numbers on a screen, believing their futures were secure, the architects of the lie were turning that stolen future into concrete and real estate for themselves. This is the real balance sheet: one family’s home built on the rubble of 28 other families’ dreams.

“Each coin is now backed with gold! So, our currency and accounts are backed better than the FDIC backs your money in the bank!”

Societal Impact Mapping

Environmental Degradation

The court documents in Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC provide no specific information regarding the environmental impact of the My Big Coin scheme. The fraud revolved around misrepresentation and misappropriation, not the technological infrastructure typically associated with cryptocurrency. Unlike proof-of-work cryptocurrencies which consume vast amounts of energy for “mining,” the fraudulent nature of My Big Coin means its primary impact was financial, not ecological. The coin was a fiction; it was not genuinely mined or traded on a large-scale decentralized network. Therefore, the typical environmental concerns of the crypto industry do not apply here based on the available evidence in the court filing.

Public Health

The public health damage of this fraud is psychological and profound. The defendants inflicted severe financial trauma on their victims through a sustained campaign of calculated deception. For three and a half years, from January 2014 to June 2017, victims lived under the illusion that their financial position was improving. The defendants operated a website where customers could “monitor their purchases and sales of MBC,” creating a state of false security and hope. This long-term manipulation fosters a deep sense of betrayal and personal violation when the truth is revealed.

The stress induced by the sudden and total loss of significant assets can lead to severe mental health consequences, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress. The lie that the investment was “backed better than the FDIC” was specifically designed to exploit the public’s need for security, making the subsequent loss even more damaging. This is not a simple market downturn; it is a deliberate act of fraud that erodes a person’s ability to trust financial systems and institutions, creating lasting anxiety about their economic future and well-being.

Economic Inequality

The My Big Coin scheme is a raw case study in predatory wealth extraction. It represents a direct, fraudulent transfer of over $6.4 million from at least 28 regular people to a small group of corporate insiders. This is economic inequality in its most criminal form. The funds were not invested, circulated, or used to build a business. They were, as the court filing states, “misappropriated” for “improper and unauthorized uses, such as to wrongfully enrich” the perpetrators themselves.

The court documents trace the flow of capital with damning clarity. Customer funds were wired into accounts controlled by the defendants and their associates. In one instance, a cashier’s check for over $1.8 million in customer money was created, deposited into a corporate account, and then $631,523.79 was wired to a real estate company for a “Home Purchase.” An executive’s family member then purchased a house for approximately $645,000 using these funds. This is how working people’s savings are converted into luxury assets for the wealthy, widening the economic divide through pure criminality. The scheme did not create value; it only relocated it from the vulnerable to the predatory.

Legal Receipts

The facts of this case are not in dispute; they are laid bare in the court’s final judgment. The following are direct findings and conclusions from the official court record, which takes the allegations as true.

From at least January 2014 through at least June 2017 (“Relevant Period”), Defendant Randal Crater together with Defendant Michael Kruger and the Defaulted Defendants (collectively, “Defendants”), operated a virtual currency scheme in which they fraudulently offered the sale of a fully functioning virtual currency, My Big Coin (“MBC”), a commodity in interstate commerce. Defendants obtained more than approximately $6 million from at least twenty-eight customers (“MBC Customers”) through fraudulent solicitations.

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Findings of Fact, ¶ 6

Defendants fraudulently solicited potential and existing MBC Customers throughout the United States by making false and misleading claims and omissions about MBC’s value, usage, and trade status, and that MBC was backed by gold.

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Findings of Fact, ¶ 7

In reality, the supposed trading results were illusory, and any payouts of funds to MBC Customers were derived from funds fraudulently obtained from other MBC Customers in the manner of a Ponzi scheme.

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Findings of Fact, ¶ 7

Similarly, on April 3, 2014, Gillespie sent an email to a MBC customer in which he wrote “all good with MBC…VERY good in fact. Each coin is now backed with gold! So, our currency and accounts are backed better than the FDIC backs your money in the bank!”

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Findings of Fact, ¶ 12

During the Relevant Period, Defendant Crater misappropriated virtually all of the approximately $6 million they solicited from MBC Customers. As a result, MBC Customers have lost most, if not all, of their funds due to the fraud and misappropriation.

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Findings of Fact, ¶ 14

On September 19, 2014, Defendants and/or Relief Defendants wired $631,523.79 from the Greyshore LLC bank account to a real estate settlement company in Florida with the notation “Other Home Purchase.” On or about September 26, 2014, Relief Defendant Erica Crater purchased a home for the price of approximately $645,000 using the funds transferred to the real estate settlement company.

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Findings of Fact, ¶ 17

Defaulted Defendants shall pay, jointly and severally, restitution in the amount of six million, four hundred forty-two thousand, one hundred eight dollars, and zero cents ($6,442,108) (“Restitution Obligation”).

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Order, ¶ 36

Defendants MBCP, MBCI, Gillespie, and Roche shall pay, jointly and severally, a civil monetary penalty in the amount of nineteen million, three hundred twenty-six thousand, three hundred twenty-four dollars and zero cents ($19,326,324.00) (“CMP Obligation”).

Case 1:18-cv-10077-DJC, Order, ¶ 45