A former executive of German financial giant Deutsche Bank has been handed a 30-year prison sentence for his role in a crypto fraud scheme.
In a new press release, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says that ex-investment banker and registered broker Rashawn Russell has pleaded guilty to charges of perpetrating a crypto fraud scheme and illegally obtaining credit card information.
Previous court filings show that between November 2020 and August 2022, Russell defrauded 29 investors using his R3 crypto fund by promising to invest their funds into digital assets that would yield them large returns. However, Russell instead mismanaged their money, the DOJ says.
According to the government, Russell used investor funds to gamble, pay his personal expenses, and repay other investors. When sentenced, Russell faces 30 years behind bars and must pay $1.5 million worth of restitution to the victims as a part of his plea deal.
As stated by United States Attorney Breon Peace in the press release,
“Russell leveraged investor interest in cryptocurrency markets to perpetrate a scheme to defraud clients who trusted him. The swift conviction in this case underscores this Office’s commitment to holding bad actors in the digital asset markets accountable.”
In a separate fraud case, from September 2021 to June 2023, Russell was found to have fraudulently obtained the information of more than 15 credit cards and other access devices that were in the name of third parties as a means of perpetrating unauthorized transactions.
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