Bitcointopia’s Founder Pleads Guilty to Sales of Land Not Belonging to Him
According to a recent report, Bitcointopia’s founder has pleaded guilty to charges levied against him regarding the operation of a money transmitting business without a license and he also admitted that some of the lands which he sold were not belonging him. Bitcointopia is a scheme which sells land in the Nevada, U.S.A. He was previously arrested for selling BTC to an undercover agent via Localbitcoins.
Former Localbitcoins trader Turn Scammer
Morgan Rockcoons who used to be a Localbitcoins trader who was arrested on the 9th of February, 2018 for selling over $10,000 worth of BTC to a U.S. Homeland Security Investigation agent has admitted to carrying out a scam of selling lands which didn’t belong to him.
He is facing close to 20 years in prison on wire fraud charges and close to 5 years on the money transmitting charge.
Bitcointopia is a scheme which sells plots of land in the Nevada desert and the founder, Morgan Rockcoons was able to carry out the scam by projecting a vision of libertarians living together using only virtual currencies and observe as few laws as possible.
Federal law states that bitcoin exchanges must be registered as a money transmitting businesses with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, conduct a KYC verification, and must report any transaction of over $10,000 to the government.
He was however granted bail from his arrest regarding the sales of BTC to a federal agent, and while he was out, he started a real estate business which he called Bitcointopia. He made several advertisements about parcels of land in Nevada’s Elko County and sold about 500- to 1,000-acre plots of undeveloped land at the rate of 0.5 BTC per acre.
He gave a false promise to create a city of the future around virtual currency, technology, and automation. He claimed to have been inspired by Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland.
Court Hearing
He, however, stated on his Twitter account on the 13th of November that he had been arrested again and asked Bitcointopians to show their support for him by coming to his court hearing which was set to take place in January. His plea agreement which took place on Thursday revealed that at least 10 investors bought land from him thereby incurring a loss of about $45,600.
