Man accused of cryptocurrency fraud in $ 4.2 million schemes

A man who claimed to own the world's first decentralized banking platform was arrested on Wednesday by FBI agents, accused of cheating investors on over $ 4.2 million in a cryptocurrency scheme, according to the office of the United States attorney.

Jared Rice Sr., 30, was indicted on three counts of fraud on the headlines and three counts of electronic fraud, resulting from an investigation and a civil action filed by this & # 39; year from the Fort Worth regional office of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Rice is accused of lying to the investors of AriseBank, which was built on a currency that called AriseCoin. Rice told investors that they could offer government-guaranteed bank accounts and services, which included Visa-based credit and debit cards and cryptocurrency services.

The truth was that AriseBank could not by law conduct banking in Texas, it was not FDIC insured and had no partnership with Visa, a press release from the US Attorney's Office said.

Rice is also accused of lying about an initial supply of coins that said it raised $ 600 million in just a few weeks. Rice could not tell investors that he had pleaded guilty to having declared criminal charges in a previous Internet-related business scheme. Meanwhile, Rice has attracted holders of other digital currencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and the currency of Fiat to exchange those with AriseCoins, as reported.

Rice started promoting AriseBank perhaps as early as June 2017 through press releases, video interviews, on Facebook and Twitter and on their websites, according to a recent federal Grand Jury indictment recently denied.

The government also states that Rice has designated the names of various products as trademarked intellectual property when in fact none of these names were registered in the United States, the states of accusation.

Despite what Rice said, AriseBank was not a bank, the prosecution said.

Rice also lied about acquiring two traditional banks, the prosecution said. According to a complaint filed in January by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Rice stated that neither he nor AriseCoin were subject to SEC regulation.

The SEC branch of Fort Worth disagreed and brought civil action against Rice, ArsieBank and another defendant.

Rice is currently on probation for forging a Texas State Secretary's constitution document and for a theft for the theft of funds provided by an investor, as evidenced by court documents.

Rice spent the money he got from investors for his girlfriend, for a family lawyer, for hotels, food, clothes and rides Uber, he said the accusation.