A US District Judge has sentenced an individual to three years in jail for their involvement in a deceptive cryptocurrency mining operation. The defendant “illegally obtained his victims’ money and did not provide them with the miners and hosting services they had purchased from him,” according to the US Department Of Justice (DOJ).
Jail Time Handed Out For Crypto Mining Scheme Fraud
The US Department Of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that Chester (Chet) Stojanovich has been sentenced to three years in prison “for conning buyers of cryptocurrency miners and hosting services.” He pleaded guilty last November to one count of wire fraud.
The DOJ said the arrest occurred between at least 2019 and about April 2022. During this time, Stojanovich “purportedly cheated more than a dozen victims of more than $2 million through false claims that he would provide them with specialized cryptocurrency-mining computers (‘miners’) and hosting services that would give the victims a lucrative stream of ‘hash power’ convertible into cryptocurrency.” The Justice Department added:
Instead, Stojanovich misappropriated his victims’ money and failed to provide them with the miners and hosting services they had purchased from him.
In addition to not providing the necessary equipment and services, the seller employed deceptive tactics to give the impression that the miners had been acquired and were being used to provide hash power to customers. The DOJ noted that Stojanovich “misappropriated his customers’ funds and spent the funds on unrelated and personal expenditures, such as chartered flights, hotel rooms, limousines, and private parties.”
Hence, Stojanovich was sentenced Thursday before US District Judge Denise Cote. The DOJ concluded:
In addition to his prison sentence, Stojanovich was ordered to pay restitution of $2,077,919 and to forfeit $3,118,713.
Today, a US court sentenced a man to three years supervised release, with forfeiture of $2,158,927 and restitution to his victims in the amount of $2,108,927. The individual had allegedly deceived investors in a cryptocurrency mining scheme.
Do you believe the perpetrator should have been given a longer prison sentence for his actions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.