A prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for orchestrating a massive fraud that resulted in staggering investor losses. The sentence, handed down in a New York courtroom, exceeds the term requested by prosecutors.
The defendant, the co-founder of a Singapore-based blockchain company, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud. These charges stemmed from the collapse of two interconnected digital currencies in 2022, an event that erased an estimated $40 billion in market value and contributed to a severe downturn across the digital asset sector.
During sentencing, the presiding judge characterized the scheme as “a fraud of epic generational scale,” noting the profound financial devastation inflicted on victims worldwide. The court heard that hundreds of individuals submitted impact statements, with many reporting the loss of life savings, retirement funds, and college tuition money.
Prosecutors outlined a scheme where, when one of the company’s stablecoins began to falter, the founder allegedly engaged in secret market manipulation to artificially sustain its price. This deceptive activity, authorities argued, misled both retail and institutional investors, inflating the value of a related token to tens of billions of dollars before the entire structure collapsed.
In a statement to the court, the defendant accepted personal responsibility, acknowledging that his conduct was not excusable as standard industry practice. “The blame should be pointed at me for everyone’s suffering,” he stated.
The defense’s request for a significantly lighter sentence was rejected by the judge as “wildly unreasonable.” As part of the plea agreement, the individual has agreed to forfeit over $19 million in assets allegedly obtained through the fraud.
The case marks another high-profile conviction in a series of legal actions against cryptocurrency executives following the market’s sharp contraction. The defendant has been in custody since being extradited to the United States last year.
Prosecutors indicated they would support a transfer to serve part of the sentence in the defendant’s home country, where separate charges are pending, provided all terms of the U.S. plea deal are fulfilled. The court determined that establishing individual restitution for the vast number of investors would be prohibitively complex.
