CFTC: Consent order entered against convicted R.I. crypto trader

THE COMMODITY Futures Trading Commission on Thursday ordered Jeremy Spence of Rhode Island to pay $2.9 million in restitution for defrauding more than 170 people in a failed cryptocurrency scheme. Spence is currently serving a 42-month prison sentence after admitting to fraud charges. /PBN FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Thursday ordered a Rhode Island man now serving time in federal prison to pay $2.9 million in restitution for defrauding more than 170 people in a failed cryptocurrency scheme.

Jeremy Spence, 26, formerly of Bristol and known on social media channels as “Coin Signals,” created the Coin Signals Bitmex Fund, the Coin Signals Alternative Fund, and the Coin Signals Long Term Fund, with which he solicited over $5 million from investors.

Spence was arrested by the FBI and charged in 2021 with one count of commodities fraud and one count of wire fraud. He pleaded guilty last May to the commodities fraud charge and was sentenced to 42 months in prison and three years of supervised release.

A U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York entered the consent order on Nov. 29, the culmination of an action brought by the FTC and CFTC stating that Spence “operated a virtual currency Ponzi scheme in which he fraudulently solicited individuals to invest in digital assets such as bitcoin and ether.”

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The order also imposes a permanent registration and trading ban.

Prosecutors alleged that from late 2017 through April 2019, Spence operated a traditional Ponzi scheme in which he obtained more than $5 million of digital assets from customers, resulting in significant trading losses and the misappropriation of client funds.

“Spence engaged in numerous efforts to conceal his misconduct, including misrepresenting his trading profitability and the amount of assets he had under management,” read the order, which said Spence had also issued “false performance statements” and “engaged in lies and deceit.”

A Justice Department statement released in May offered one example of Spence’s fraudulent activities, noting a Jan. 2018 message he posted in an online chat group claiming that his trading in the previous month “had generated a return of more than 148%.”

“As a result of this misrepresentation, investors transferred additional funds to Spence,” the department stated. “In fact, over that same period…Spence’s trading resulted in net losses in the accounts in which he traded investor funds.”

Spence’s lawyers previously argued in court documents their client got “in over his head” with the cryptocurrency and that the money was not stolen but “lost in new, unregulated, volatile markets after it was entrusted to a 21-year-old college drop-out who should never have had that much responsibility in the first place.”

In the announcement the CFTC cautioned the order “may not result in the recovery of any money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets.”

Spence is serving his sentence at USP-Lewisburg federal prison and is scheduled to be released on Sept. 11, 2025, according to the federal inmate database.

(Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com)

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