The US derivatives watchdog said on Wednesday that it has filed charges ‎against privately held My Big Coin Pay, the corporate parent of the online ‎cryptocurrency payment platform and virtual wallet website ‎MyBigCoin.com. ‎

Last week, the CFTC filed federal charges for fraud and misappropriation ‎against three separate digital coin operators, alleging that they ‎had defrauded customers and broken other commodity trading rules.

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Specifically, the CFTC charged New York resident Randall Crater, Mark Gillespie of ‎Michigan and their company with misappropriating money from customers ‎they had solicited for providing virtual-currency trading and other ‎services. ‎

In a criminal complaint filed in Massachusetts district court, the ‎CFTC describes how My Big Coin sold digital tokens known as ‘MBC’ as ‎part of a purported ICO that allows investors to enjoy a lavish lifestyle, ‎including travel, entertainment, jewelry purchases and “much more across ‎the world.”‎

The agency also ‎obtained an emergency asset order, citing the movements of the ICO funds into ‎different accounts.‎

The CFTC alleges that between approximately January 2014 and January ‎‎2018, the defendants and the Las Vegas-based corporation fraudulently ‎solicited more than $6 million from swindled investors.

The agency alleged that the MBC website made false statements to ‎prospective investors, as well as purposefully misrepresenting that ‎the token was backed by gold, partnered ‎with MasterCard,‎ when in fact it was not.‎

The fraudsters also represented the MBC token to investors as being used to “to purchase a home, antiques, fine art, jewelry, luxury goods, furniture, interior decorating and other home improvement services, travel, and entertainment.”

Founded in December of 2013, My Big Coin is a virtual currency wallet and platform ‎that allegedly allows merchants and consumers to process transactions with its own digital currency.‎

Director of Enforcement James McDonald, stated: “As this case ‎shows, the CFTC is actively policing the virtual currency markets and ‎will vigorously enforce the anti-fraud provisions of the Commodity ‎Exchange Act. In addition to harming customers, fraud in connection ‎with virtual currencies inhibits potentially market-enhancing ‎developments in this area. We caution potential virtual currency ‎customers, once again, that they should engage in appropriate ‎diligence before purchasing virtual currencies.”‎