The operator of now-defunct Bitcoin (BTC)
exchange BitFunder, Jon Montroll, has received a 14 months prison
sentence following federal charges of obstruction of justice and
securities fraud, finance and trading industry news outlet FinanceFeeds reported on July 12.
The proceedings against Montroll began
last year. In July 2018, Montroll pleaded guilty to obstruction of
justice, admitting that he provided false balance statements to the
United States Securities and Exchange Commission in an investigation of the fake 6,000 BTC BitFunder hack in 2013.
The
proceedings against Montroll ended on July 11, 2019, wherein Judge
Richard M. Berman of the New York Southern District Court ruled to
imprison Montroll for 14 months and determined 3 years of supervised
release. Although Montroll’s counsel argued in favour of a probationary
sentence, the government made a case for a sentence from 27 to 33
months’ imprisonment.
Recently, U.S. District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein sentenced
44-year old New Jersey resident Blake Kantor to 86 months in prison for
running a cryptocurrency-related scheme. Feuerstein also ordered Kantor
to pay a total restitution of $806,405 distributed to the victims who
invested in his scam, as well as forfeiture of $153,000 in stolen
proceeds.
In May, the SEC initiated court proceedings against California resident Daniel Pacheco for allegedly operating a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency
pyramid scheme. The SEC accused Pacheco of conducting a fraudulent,
unregistered offering of securities through two California-based
companies, IPro Solutions LLC and IPro Network LLC, from January 2017
through March 2018.
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