Brother and sister charged with cryptocurrency fraud in New York

US authorities on Tuesday filed criminal charges against a cryptocurrency executive and civil charges against him and his sister, accusing them of defrauding retail investors out of millions of dollars with a digital token known as Ormeus Coin.

Barksdale and his sister JonAtina (AKA Tina) Barksdale were separately charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission with conducting fraudulent unregistered offerings of Ormeus Coin.

The SEC said the Barksdales since 2017 raised $124m from more than 20,000 investors through their multi-level marketing company Ormeus Global SA, and spent millions of dollars on travel, real estate and other personal expenses.

Lawyers for the Barksdales could not immediately be identified.

John Barksdale has been arrested, and faces up to 65 years in prison on securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy charges, according to the justice department.

Both defendants are US citizens, with John Barksdale, 41, having lived in Thailand and JonAtina Barksdale, 45, in Hong Kong, the SEC said.

The White House has been considering broad oversight over the cryptocurrency market, in part to address ransomware and other cybercrime.

Joe Biden is expected this week to direct the justice department and other federal agencies to study possible ramifications from creating a US central bank digital currency, a person familiar with the matter said.