Ex-Investment Banker and Registered Broker Busted in $1,500,000 Crypto Fraud Scheme: DOJ

A former investment banker and registered broker has been sentenced for masterminding a $1.5 million crypto fraud scheme.

In a new press release, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) says that Rashawn Russell, who used to work for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), has been sentenced to three years and five months behind bars.

The DOJ says that between November 2020 and August 2022, Russell ran a scheme where he defrauded crypto investors using false promises of massive returns. Russell would then misappropriate their funds for personal use.

“Russell misappropriated much of the investors’ assets and used them to fund personal expenses, to gamble, and to repay other investors. Russell also repeatedly failed to repay investors’ principal investments and failed to provide investors with promised rates of return.

After certain investors requested to be repaid their investments, Russell also falsely represented that he had wired the money to them.”

According to the DOJ, In a separate scam between September 2021 and June 2023, Russell illegally obtained 97 credit and debit numbers and 43 identification cards from gym lockers in New York and New Jersey and used them for unauthorized transactions.

In addition to his time behind bars, Russell has been ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution toward the victims of his digital asset fraud scheme, according to the press release.

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