Principal Of Cryptocurrency Escrow Company Indicted For $7 Million Fraudulent Scheme

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that a grand jury in the Southern District of New York has returned an indictment charging JON BARRY THOMPSON, a/k/a “J. Barry Thompson,” the principal of the cryptocurrency escrow company Volantis Escrow Platform LLC and the related company Volantis Market Making LCC (collectively “Volantis”) with commodities fraud and wire fraud offenses. As alleged, THOMPSON took over $7 million from two victim companies after making false promises in connection with Bitcoin transactions. THOMPSON was arrested in July based on a criminal complaint filed by this Office charging him with the same crimes. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “As alleged, Jon Barry Thompson repeatedly lied to investors in cryptocurrencies about the safety of their investments made through his companies. As a result of Thompson’s lies, investors lost millions of dollars.”

In a separate civil action, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) today filed civil charges against THOMPSON.

As alleged in the Indictment and the criminal complaint previously filed in this case:[1]

THOMPSON claimed in promotional materials that Volantis “minimize[d] settlement default risk” in cryptocurrency transactions. THOMPSON claimed that because Volantis acted as a custodian of assets for “both sides of the transaction, there is no risk of default.”

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/principal-cryptocurrency-escrow-company-indicted-7-million-fraudulent-scheme