Federal prosecutors in Texas announced Wednesday that they have arrested a Dallas-based cryptocurrency CEO on charges of securities and wire fraud, adding that he allegedly defrauded investors to the tune of $4 million.

The entrepreneur, Jared Rice, Sr., 30, claimed to run something called "AriseBank" and its related purported cryptocurrency, AriseCoin. The new criminal charges are on top of a complaint brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2018, around the same time that the Texas Department of Banking issued a related cease-and-desist order to AriseBank.

State and federal authorities got involved in late January 2018, just weeks after boxer Evander Holyfield endorsed the company.

Rice claimed that AriseBank was the world’s "first decentralized banking platform" and would offer traditional FDIC-insured accounts, along with debit and credit cards.

"In actuality, AriseBank had not been authorized to conduct banking in Texas, was not FDIC insured, and did not have any sort of partnership with Visa," prosecutors said in a press release. "Even as he touted AriseBank’s nonexistent benefits in press releases and online, Mr. Rice quietly converted investor funds for his own personal use, spending the money on hotels, food, clothing, a family law attorney, and even a guardian ad litem."

Rice did not respond to Ars’ request for comment.

In September 2018, a federal judge in Connecticut sentenced Josh Garza to 21 months in prison after he pled guilty to one count of wire fraud in a similar cryptocurrency scam.