Robert Dunlap: Difference between revisions
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Latest revision as of 14:24, 3 June 2026
| Robert Dunlap | |
|---|---|
| Born: | United States |
| Charges: | Mail fraud (2 counts) |
| Sentence: | 276 months (23 years) federal prison |
| Facility: | |
| Status: | Incarcerated |
Robert Dunlap is an American man convicted of federal mail fraud for orchestrating the Meta-1 Coin scheme, a cryptocurrency fraud that took in more than $20 million from nearly 1,000 investors between 2018 and 2023.[1] Dunlap, of Houston, Texas, sold a purported digital asset called Meta-1 Coin through an entity he ran as the "Meta-1 Coin Trust."[1]
Dunlap told investors the coin was backed by hard assets. He claimed it was secured by as much as $1 billion in fine art and $44 billion in gold.[1] He named works attributed to Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Vincent van Gogh among the collection.[1] He produced documents stating that an accounting firm had audited the gold and certified its value.[1] Investigators found that Dunlap owned neither the art nor the gold, and that the audit records were fabricated.[1]
A federal jury in Chicago convicted Dunlap on two counts of mail fraud on November 20, 2025, after a week-long trial.[2] On April 15, 2026, U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt sentenced him to 23 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay restitution to his victims.[1][3] The criminal case was prosecuted in the Northern District of Illinois. A separate civil enforcement action by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had been filed against Dunlap and two associates in 2020 in the Western District of Texas.[4]
Background
Public records identify Dunlap as a resident of Houston, Texas.[1] He was in his mid-fifties at the time of his conviction.[5] Court filings in the SEC's earlier civil case listed him as a Florida resident at the time of that 2020 action.[4]
Within the Meta-1 operation, Dunlap presented himself as a wealthy financier. He used the title "Executive Trustee" of the Meta-1 Coin Trust and described himself in promotional materials as the project's architect.[6] He claimed to own a private art collection and to hold rights to a large gold reserve. Neither claim was true.[1]
Meta-1 Coin
Meta-1 Coin was marketed as a stable, asset-backed digital token. Dunlap sold it through the Meta-1 Coin Trust and a related website he operated as the "Meta Exchange."[2] The pitch centered on permanence. Promoters told buyers the coin could not lose value because it was tied to physical reserves.[4]
The asset claims changed over the life of the project. Early marketing described a $1 billion art collection.[6] Later marketing described billions of dollars in gold. By the time of the criminal case, prosecutors cited a claimed backing of $44 billion in gold.[1] The SEC's 2020 complaint described a claimed backing of roughly $2 billion in gold and a $1 billion art collection.[4]
Buyers purchased Meta-1 Coin at a price set by the operators. The SEC said the coin sold at $22.22 per unit and that promoters projected a single coin could reach $50,000 within two years, a return the agency calculated at more than 224,000 percent.[4] The SEC said the defendants told investors the coin was risk-free and would never decline in value.[4]
The Scheme
The fraud ran from 2018 to 2023.[1] Dunlap solicited money from the public on the strength of the asset-backing claims, then concealed the absence of those assets.[1]
To support the gold claim, Dunlap created false legal and financial documents.[1] These included paperwork purporting to show that an accounting firm had reviewed and certified the gold reserves.[1] No such gold existed under his control. The art collection he described was also not his.[1]
Dunlap manipulated the apparent market for the coin. He deployed automated trading bots to inflate the price and trading volume of Meta-1 Coin on the Meta Exchange, the trading website he built.[2] The inflated figures gave investors the impression of genuine demand and rising value.[1]
The money investors paid did not buy any backed asset. Prosecutors said the scheme caused nearly 1,000 investors to lose more than $20 million.[1] The SEC, working from an earlier and narrower window, said the operation had raised over $9 million from at least 500 investors across 40 states and six foreign countries.[4]
The project drew attention for the people around it. The SEC named two associates alongside Dunlap. Nicole Bowdler, a social-media personality, served as a trustee and handled what the operation called art acquisition.[6] David A. Schmidt, a former member of the Washington state legislature, promoted the coin through his blog and broadcasts and defended it publicly against fraud accusations.[6] The criminal trial in 2025 centered on Dunlap.[5]
Charges and Conviction
The SEC filed the first government action. On March 16, 2020, the agency filed an emergency civil complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, against the Meta-1 Coin Trust, Dunlap, Bowdler, and Schmidt.[4] The complaint charged violations of the antifraud and securities-registration provisions of the federal securities laws and sought an asset freeze.[4] The defendants did not answer the complaint, and the court entered default judgment.[7] The court held Meta-1 and Dunlap jointly liable for disgorgement of $10,849,776.47 plus prejudgment interest, and imposed a civil penalty of the same amount.[7] Bowdler was held liable for disgorgement of $1,540,679.48 plus interest.[7]
Federal prosecutors in Chicago brought the criminal case. Dunlap was charged with mail fraud for the Meta-1 Coin scheme.[2] His trial lasted about a week. On November 20, 2025, the jury found him guilty on two counts of mail fraud.[2][5] Each count carried a statutory maximum of 20 years, and reporting at the time noted he faced up to 40 years in prison.[2]
The investigation was led by IRS Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the SEC and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.[1] Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini prosecuted the case.[1]
Sentencing
Judge LaShonda A. Hunt sentenced Dunlap on April 15, 2026, in the Northern District of Illinois.[3] The sentence was 23 years, or 276 months, in federal prison.[1] The court also ordered Dunlap to pay restitution to compensate victims for their losses.[1]
At sentencing, prosecutors put the total loss at more than $20 million across nearly 1,000 victims.[1] That figure was higher than the roughly $14 million cited at the time of the November 2025 conviction, reflecting the full accounting of investor losses across the scheme.[2][1] U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros announced the sentence.[1]
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who is Robert Dunlap?
Robert Dunlap is a Houston, Texas, man convicted of federal mail fraud for running the Meta-1 Coin scheme. He sold a cryptocurrency he falsely claimed was backed by gold and fine art, taking in more than $20 million from nearly 1,000 investors between 2018 and 2023.
Q: What was Robert Dunlap convicted of?
A federal jury in Chicago convicted Dunlap on two counts of mail fraud on November 20, 2025, after a week-long trial. The conviction stemmed from the Meta-1 Coin cryptocurrency fraud.
Q: How long is Robert Dunlap's sentence?
U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt sentenced Dunlap on April 15, 2026, to 23 years in federal prison and ordered restitution to his victims.
Q: What was Meta-1 Coin?
Meta-1 Coin was a digital token Dunlap sold through the Meta-1 Coin Trust. He claimed it was backed by as much as $1 billion in art and $44 billion in gold and that an accounting firm had audited the gold. Investigators found Dunlap owned neither the art nor the gold and that the audit documents were fabricated.
Q: How much money did the Meta-1 Coin scheme take?
Prosecutors said the scheme caused nearly 1,000 investors to lose more than $20 million. The earlier SEC civil case described over $9 million raised from at least 500 investors across 40 states and six countries.
Q: Who were Robert Dunlap's co-defendants?
The SEC's 2020 civil complaint named Nicole Bowdler, who served as a trustee handling art acquisition, and David A. Schmidt, a former Washington state legislator who promoted the coin. The 2025 criminal trial centered on Dunlap.
Q: Where was Robert Dunlap's case prosecuted?
The criminal mail fraud case was prosecuted in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago. The earlier SEC civil action was filed in the Western District of Texas.
Q: How did Robert Dunlap inflate Meta-1 Coin's value?
Dunlap used automated trading bots to inflate the price and trading volume of Meta-1 Coin on the Meta Exchange, a trading website he created, giving investors a false impression of demand and rising value.
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois. "Texas Man Who Orchestrated $20 Million Cryptocurrency Scam Sentenced to 23 Years in Prison." April 16, 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation. "Federal jury in Chicago convicts man of orchestrating $14 million cryptocurrency fraud." November 20, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 CBS News Chicago. "Texas man behind $20 million crypto scam gets 23 years in federal prison from Illinois judge." April 16, 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "SEC Emergency Action Stops Digital Asset Scam." Press Release 2020-66, March 16, 2020.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Chicago Sun-Times. "Cryptocurrency scam sees Chicago jury convict Texas man in $14 million scheme." November 20, 2025.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Adkins, Will. "The $9 Million Crypto Scam Backed By a State Senator and a YouTube Psychic." The Daily Beast, June 1, 2020.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "SEC v. Meta 1 Coin Trust, Robert Dunlap, Clear International Trust, Nicole Bowdler, and David A. Schmidt." Litigation Release No. 24775.