Houston Entrepreneur Gets 23 Years for $20M Meta-1 Fraud

Robert Dunlap, 55, a Houston entrepreneur, was sentenced on April 15, 2026, to 23 years in federal prison after a jury found he ran a $20 million fraud through the Meta-1 Coin Trust that took money from more than 1,000 investors. U.S. District Judge LaShonda A. Hunt also ordered full restitution to the victims.

Prosecutors said Dunlap presented himself as the trustee of the Meta-1 Coin Trust from 2018 to 2023 and claimed the token was backed by $44 billion in gold verified by an accounting firm and $1 billion in fine art by masters including Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dalí. Investors were told the investment carried little risk and could produce very large returns, with some promotions describing gains as high as 224,923 percent.

Federal authorities found no gold bars in vaults and no valuable paintings in galleries. Prosecutors wrote that Dunlap and accomplices created fake paperwork, repeatedly misled investors and siphoned off millions. Investigators say Dunlap used automated trading bots on his own Meta Exchange platform to create the appearance of rising prices and trading volume. Some victims drained retirement accounts and lifetime savings to buy the tokens, and prosecutors reported that some proceeds were spent on luxury items, including a Ferrari.

Dunlap was convicted last year by a federal jury in the Northern District of Illinois on two counts of mail fraud. In court filings, prosecutors argued for a lengthy sentence and wrote that potential offenders “need to know that such actions will be met with a serious repercussion that includes loss of one’s liberty for an extended period of time.” Adam Jobes, IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge, wrote in a statement that Dunlap had “upended lives,” stripping victims of years of financial security.

Regulators attempted to halt the operation earlier. The Securities and Exchange Commission issued an emergency asset freeze in 2020, but authorities say the freeze did not fully stop activity and the scheme continued until federal investigators traced assets and dismantled the network.

The case comes amid rising crypto-related losses nationwide. The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report showed nearly $21 billion in total internet crime losses, with crypto fraud accounting for roughly 181,565 theft cases and more than $11 billion in losses, a 22 percent increase from the prior year. The report placed Texas second among states in total cybercrime losses, at about $1.8 billion.

Recent enforcement actions include a 20-year in absentia sentence for a fugitive tied to a $73 million international “pig-butchering” scheme and a multinational police operation that identified about $45 million in stolen crypto and froze about $12 million through coordinated efforts by U.S., British and Canadian authorities.