Michael Glaspie, a 72-year-old man from Palm City, Florida, has pleaded guilty to orchestrating an investment fraud scheme that defrauded over 10,000 victims of more than $55 million. Glaspie marketed an investment opportunity called “CoinDeal” or “Coin Deal,” which he claimed would yield high returns based on the acquisition of one or more technology companies operated under the banner of “ViRSE,” allegedly owned by Neil Suresh Chandran.
To attract investors, Glaspie falsely promised to repay investors with seven percent annual interest over three years in the event that returns from CoinDeal failed to materialize. However, Glaspie had no means of making such repayments.
To support his false repayment promise, Glaspie made deceptive claims, including having an exclusive and lucrative contract with AT&T to distribute government-funded phones and that an app he developed was being distributed by the Better Business Bureau, which would generate over $400 million in revenue, despite having no such contract or distribution agreement.
When the promised sale of CoinDeal did not close, Glaspie transmitted investor funds to Chandran after falsely representing to CoinDeal investors that he would not do so. Glaspie also misappropriated nearly $2.5 million of victim investments for personal purposes, including trading cryptocurrency, paying his employees’ salaries, and buying a life insurance policy for a family member.
Glaspie pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 16. On June 14, 2022, a federal grand jury in the District of Nebraska returned an indictment charging Chandran with three counts of wire fraud and two counts of engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property for his role in the scheme. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the wire fraud counts and up to 10 years in prison for each count of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.
The FBI Washington, Omaha, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles Field Offices are investigating the cases. The U.S. Attorney’s office in Nebraska is prosecuting the case, and potential victims of the fraud are encouraged to visit the justice department’s webpage to identify themselves and obtain more information on their rights, including the opportunity to submit a victim impact statement.