Robert Dunlap of Houston, Texas, has been sentenced to 23 years in federal prison after orchestrating a cryptocurrency fraud that stripped nearly 1,000 investors of more than $20 million. US District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt handed down the sentence on Tuesday, April 15, 2026, and ordered Dunlap to pay full restitution to his victims, according to the US Department of Justice.
What was Meta-1 Coin?
From 2018 to 2023, Dunlap operated what he branded the “Meta-1 Coin Trust,” marketing a digital asset he called Meta-1 Coin to investors across the United States and abroad. The pitch was grand. Dunlap told potential investors that their money was safe because the token was backed by up to $44 billion in gold and a $1 billion collection of fine art. He claimed an accounting firm had independently audited and certified the value of the gold. The art collection, he said, featured authenticated works by Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, and Vincent van Gogh.
None of it was real. According to prosecutors, Dunlap created fabricated legal and insurance documents to hide the fact that no such gold or artwork existed under the trust. He also built a website called the Meta Exchange and deployed automated trading bots to inflate Meta-1 Coin’s listed price and trading volume, giving the token a false appearance of market activity and value. Investors, including those who put in their entire life savings, received nothing in return.
A long history of ignoring court orders
Authorities flagged the scheme years before Dunlap ever stood trial. In March 2020, the SEC issued emergency relief orders, froze assets, and named Dunlap, an alleged accomplice named Nicole Bowdler, and former Washington state Senator David Schmidt as defendants in a civil fraud action. At that stage, investigators said the scheme had already reached more than 800 investors in 40 US states and eight foreign countries.
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Dunlap’s response was to keep going. Despite active court orders and, at one point, an outstanding arrest warrant, he and his associates continued to promote Meta-1 Coin through social media, Zoom calls, in-person seminars, and an internet radio show.
The SEC eventually secured a civil default judgment against Dunlap and Meta-1 Coin Trust for more than $11.7 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest, plus an additional civil penalty exceeding $10.8 million. The criminal case proceeded alongside the civil proceedings, culminating in a federal jury verdict in Chicago in November 2025.
What the court and prosecutors said
Assistant US Attorneys Jared Hasten and Paige Nutini argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum that Dunlap was unrepentant throughout and that his false claims grew bolder with time. They stated that the Defendant lied to investors for years telling them that he had created a safe investment for them. It was further stated that, over the years, the defendant was unrepentant and his lies became bigger.
IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Adam Jobes offered a sharper summary of what was at stake for the victims: “Robert Dunlap didn’t just take money, he took years of hard work, trust, and financial security from his victims. He used lies and deception to pull in millions, leaving some investors with nothing. Crimes like this don’t just hit bank accounts, they upend lives.
The sentence was announced jointly by US Attorney Andrew S. Boutros for the Northern District of Illinois, FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Douglas S. DePodesta of the Chicago Field Office, and IRS-CI SAC Adam Jobes. The SEC and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia provided supporting assistance.
Part of a wider crackdown on crypto fraud
The Dunlap sentence arrives as US federal prosecutors apply increasing pressure on cryptocurrency-related financial crimes. Earlier in 2026, Nevin Shetty, a former chief financial officer at tech firm Fabric, was sentenced to two years in prison for diverting $35 million from his employer into a personal crypto project.
In a separate case, a 20-year prison sentence has been imposed on a defendant in a pig-butchering crypto scam, which is a type of scam that has caused billions in losses globally in recent years.
This consistent pattern indicates that the DOJ’s position is that the use of blockchain technology and digital assets does not create a legal gray area for fraudsters. The size of the deception is matched by prosecutors with sentences that have real consequences.
