Cointime

Cointime

Download App
iOS & Android

Former Investment Banker and Registered Broker Charged with Operating Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud Scheme

Cointime Official

April 11 (Cointime) - Rashawn Russell, a former investment banker and registered broker, is set to be arraigned today in federal court in Brooklyn on charges of perpetrating a cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme. Russell was arrested yesterday and will appear before United States Magistrate Judge Ramon E. Reyes, Jr. this afternoon.

The arrest and indictment were announced by United States attornies. Court documents allege that Russell defrauded multiple investors by falsely promising large and sometimes "guaranteed" returns on their cryptocurrency investments. Instead, Russell misappropriated the investors' funds for personal use, gambling, and repaying other investors.

“As alleged, Russell turned the demand for cryptocurrency investments into a scheme to defraud numerous investors in order to fund his lifestyle,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “This Office will continue to aggressively pursue fraudsters perpetrating these schemes against investors in the digital asset markets.”   

Russell is also accused of lying to investors about the status of their investments and fabricating documents to support his claims. In one instance, he allegedly sent an investor an altered image of a bank balance to show his supposed liquidity. In another case, when an investor requested their money back, Russell sent a fake bank wire transfer confirmation instead of returning the funds.

The charges in the indictment are allegations, and Russell is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

Cryptocurrency Fraud
Comments

All Comments

Recommended for you

  • Cyvers Alerts: Cryptocurrency scams steal $3.6 billion in 2024

    According to Cyvers Alerts system monitoring, the "Ponzi scheme" scam in the cryptocurrency field stole $3.6 billion in 2024, with most of it happening on Ethereum. These scams are cunning, using trust to lure victims into false cryptocurrency investments and then making their funds disappear. With a 40% increase in online threats this year, it is clear that the cryptocurrency field needs stronger defenses and more acute awareness to fight back.

  • Decentralized AI platform Nodepay completes $7 million in second round of financing

    decentralized AI platform Nodepay has completed its second round of financing, raising $7 million. Investors include IDG Capital, Mythos, Elevate Ventures, IBC, Optic Capital, Funders.VC, Etherscan founder Matthew Tan, and CoinHako co-founder and CEO Yusho Liu.

  • ZachXBT: Scam tokens issued after Yat Siu’s X account was stolen, originating from the same address as Kick & Vanar incident

    according to ZachXBT, Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca, may have been deceived by the same phishing email that targeted more than 10 X accounts of hackers, because the fraudulent tokens were deployed in the same address as Kick & Vanar CEO ATO.

  • Chillguy creator X's account was briefly stolen and has been restored to control, calling on the community to be vigilant against abnormal content

    Phillip Bankss, the creator of Chillguy's image, stated that his X account was stolen. Although he has regained control, hackers may have set up some scheduled tweets, or the account may not be completely safe yet. He called on the community to notify him promptly if they discover any abnormal content for him to handle.

  • German parliament passes Financial Market Digitalization Act

    According to a report by Ledger Insights, the German parliament (Bundestag) has passed the "Financial Market Digitalization Act" (Finanzmarktdigitalisierungsgesetz or FinmadiG) this week. The parliament responded to industry demands to ensure legislation is in place before MiCAR comes into full effect on December 30th.

  • Odos DAO: Phishing email attacks related to the "ODOS Loyalty Program" have appeared, reminding users to be vigilant

    Odos DAO posted on X platform, stating that they have noticed phishing email attacks related to the "ODOS Loyalty Program" in the community and reminded users to be cautious. Odos DAO and ODOS will not send emails to users. All official communication is only conducted through verified Twitter accounts. Do not click on any suspicious links.

  • Report: 165 security incidents have occurred in the Web3 field so far in 2024, with losses exceeding US$2.3 billion

    According to a report summarizing key security trends in 2024 by Cyvers, Web3 network threats will increase sharply in 2024, resulting in losses of over 2.3 billion US dollars and a total of 165 security incidents. Although the loss amount is 40% higher than in 2023 (1.69 billion US dollars), it is still 1.42 billion US dollars lower than in 2022 (3.78 billion US dollars). It is worth noting that 1.3 billion US dollars of stolen funds were recovered this year.

  • Phishing ad links impersonating Virtuals Protocol appear in Google search results

    according to Scam Sniffer, there are currently phishing ads impersonating Virtuals Protocol appearing in Google search results. If users click on these links to connect their wallets and sign transactions, these fraudulent ads may steal users' assets. Users should be careful to identify and prevent theft.

  • ZachXBT: Suspected insiders made $3.8 million in profits on RTR

    On August 10th, Chain Detective ZachXBT posted on social media that 4 addresses made a profit of $3.8 million in the RTR sell-off, with the 9G1ELG and GHoW2 addresses belonging to the same person and receiving 500 SOL in new funds within minutes after the TGE. Previously, it was reported that Restore The Republic (RTR) had its TGE on the evening of August 8th, with rumors circulating in the community that it was related to a new project by the Trump family. The RTR token reached a high of $0.156 on August 9th at midnight. Afterwards, Eric Trump, the current Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and son of Donald Trump, warned on social media to "be careful of false tokens" and that the only official Trump project has yet to be announced and will be announced on Twitter first. After the statement was released, RTR quickly dropped by about 95%, with a trading volume of $164 million within just 15 hours of its creation.

  • The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has released a new draft of the crypto tax form, which no longer requires filling in wallet addresses and transaction IDs

    The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released an updated draft version of tax form 1099-DA for cryptocurrency brokers and investors to report certain transaction income. The public has 30 days to provide feedback to the IRS on this version. Starting in 2026, cryptocurrency investors who use brokers (currently mainly Coinbase and Kraken, among others) will receive 1099-DAs from these brokers to report certain cryptocurrency sales and trades as taxable events to the IRS. IRS officials say this form will "bring more convenience and clarity" to users who pay US cryptocurrency taxes.

Daily Must-Read

Popular Activities

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

Delysium $AGI & AI Private Yacht Party

March 27 - March 27
Seoul

Popular Tags

Cointime
News
Contents
RSS
Company