A former Brooklyn investment banker faces up to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple acts of fraud, United States Attorney Breon Peace announced this week.
During a plea agreement hearing, which took place in federal court in Brooklyn, 27-year-old Rashawn Russell admitted to participating in a fraudulent scheme involving a cryptocurrency investment fund that he operated.
According to court filings and facts presented during the plea hearing, the incidents occurred between November 2020 and August 2022.
During this time, Russell, a former investment banker and registered broker with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, followed through with a plan to defraud his investors by falsely promising to use their funds for cryptocurrency investments to yield large returns.
Instead, Russell admitted to using his customers’ assets for his own personal means, including gambling and repaying earlier investors.
According to United States Attorney Peace, Russell’s fraudulent act affected 29 investors in total, who as a collective lost at least $1.5 million.
“Russell leveraged investor interest in cryptocurrency markets to perpetrate a scheme to defraud clients who trusted him,” said United States Attorney Peace. “The swift conviction in this case underscores this Office’s commitment to holding bad actors in the digital asset markets accountable.”
In addition to pleading guilty for his crypto investment scheme, Russell also reportedly confessed to a separate series of fraudulent acts that took place between September 2021 and June 2023.
Over that time span, Russell admitted to fraudulently obtaining over 15 credit cards and other access devices in the names of third parties, with the intention of utilizing them to complete unauthorized transactions.
As part of his plea agreement, Russell has been ordered by the court to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution.
