A New York District Court in Brooklyn sentenced former Deutsche Bank Exec Rashawn Russell to 41 months in prison on May 31 for wire fraud in a crypto conspiracy fraud scheme.
The Justice Department (DOJ) has determined that Russell was in charge of the fraudulent R3 Crypto Fund from November 2020 to August 2022. The fund made cryptocurrency investments with the assurance of substantial and, at times, guaranteed returns.
Russell utilized his investors’ funds to his advantage or to reimburse other investors. Additionally, he made a false claim that he had wired investors money with repayment demands.
Additionally, Russell held a broker registration with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Based on the accusations, he might have gotten thirty years in prison. An additional restitution order of $1.5 million was issued against him on behalf of the crypto scheme’s victims.
In a separate incident between September 2021 and June 2023, Russell amassed 97 bank cards under the fraudulent use of each, including at least 43 different identities.
In April 2023, pursuers indicted Russell on the count of cryptocurrencies. September found him guilty of all the allegations against him.
Numerous cryptocriminal schemes are thwarted.
Russell is a victim of a spate of fraudsters who have been brought to justice within the past two months. For flash loan attacks on cryptocurrency exchanges in 2022, Shakeeb Ahmed, a computer security engineer, was sentenced to three years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release in the Southern New York District Court on April 12.
For manipulating the Ethereum blockchain, the DOJ charged brothers Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno on May 15 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to conduct money laundering, and wire fraud.
Thomas John Sfraga pleaded guilty to a wire fraud charge on May 18 about a fictitious cryptocurrency wallet and additional schemes. Two individuals were apprehended on the same day, each charged with seven counts of money laundering and international money laundering involving over $73 million in funds from a pig-butchering cryptocurrency scheme.
