Judge Jennifer Rochon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York has ordered the forfeiture of $914,000 and the voluntary surrender of ex-IcomTech CEO Marco Ochoa in exchange for a 60-month prison sentence starting on March 19.
Marco Ochoa, the former chief executive officer of IcomTech, a cryptocurrency mining company, received a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Ochoa entered a guilty plea in September on one count of conspiracy to perpetrate wire fraud in connection with a Ponzi scheme utilizing cryptocurrencies at IcomTech. He served as the mining company’s CEO between 2018 and 2019.
In September, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated, “IcomTech was one of these large-scale copycat cryptocurrency scams. Ochoa, as the alleged CEO, played a significant role in bringing IcomTech to scale and ultimately harming more victims.”
The Justice Department asserts that despite IcomTech’s assurances of daily returns on investment products, investors could not withdraw their funds. November 2022, approximately three years after the demise of IcomTech, witnessed the authorities’ indictment of Ochoa and other executives.
In December 2023, David Carmona, the proprietor of IcomTech, entered a guilty plea on one count of conspiracy to perpetrate wire fraud. Although the remaining four former executives named defendants in the case have entered guilty pleas or not guilty, Ochoa received the most severe sentence.
In the past year, numerous crypto figures have appeared in courtrooms due to a crackdown by U.S. authorities. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of seven felonies in November 2023 and is scheduled to receive his sentence in March 2023.
As part of a settlement between the cryptocurrency exchange and prosecutors, former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao entered a guilty plea to one felony count.
