According to a Department of Justice press release, Jeremy Spence, 24, of Bristol, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday, Jan. 26, and charged with one count of commodities fraud and one count of wire fraud.

As a cryptocurrency trader doing business as “Coin Signals,” from Nov. 2017 through April 2019, Mr. Spence allegedly took cryptocurrency worth more than $5 million from 170 individual investors, claiming he would net them returns of as much as 148 percent. When those lofty predictions failed to materialize, he used money from new investors to pay for the losses with the older investors — a classic Ponzi scheme structure.

The Mt. Hope High School graduate is being charged in Manhattan Federal Court. Arrested in Rhode Island, he appeared before Magistrate Judge Patricia A. Sullivan in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island, in Providence. He was released on $100,000 unsecured bond, with conditions.

Rebecca L. Aitchison was appointed as Mr. Spence’s Federal Public Defender, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Magdo will lead the prosecution. Commodities fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years, but the DOJ notes sentencing is determined by a judge, and at this time, the complaint remains an allegation.