An Arizona man who masterminded a $13 million crypto Ponzi scheme pleaded guilty this week to money laundering and conspiracy to obstruct justice charges.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says Vincent Anthony Mazzotta Jr., 54, schemed with his co-defendant David Saffron and others to fraudulently promise investors high-yield profits from crypto investments that pretended to rely on automated trading robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

Mazzotta Jr. lured investors by convincing them to sink money into multiple crypto investment companies. When those companies disappeared with the investors’ capital, he went one step further and created a fake government entity called the Federal Crypto Reserve (FCR), which solicited thousands of additional dollars from victims by pretending to investigate those same firms.

The DOJ says Mazzotta Jr. also obstructed justice after Saffron’s initial arrest by destroying evidence at his co-defendant’s apartment, and he attempted to falsify the records of his business, Runway Beauty Inc., to hide his participation in the fraud from a federal grand jury.

Bill Essayli, US Attorney for the Central District of California, warns that criminals like to use the “relative novelty” of crypto assets to prey on victims.

Mazzotta Jr. faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the money laundering charge and five years for conspiring to obstruct justice.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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An accountant and adjunct business instructor from Scranton, Pennsylvania, is sentenced to federal prison for her involvement in a multi-state business email compromise scheme.

In a statement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa says that 63-year-old Margo Ann Williams laundered $800,000 of proceeds from a scheme that was carried out between December 2022 and July 2023.

According to evidence presented at the trial, the email accounts of the five victims – a Cedar Rapids church, two businesses, a non-profit and an individual – were hacked while they were in the process of making large wire and automatic clearinghouse (ACH) transfers. 

The victims received spoofed emails containing instructions to change the routing information for the wire and ACH transfers. Believing that the emails were from legitimate and trusted sources, the victims instructed their banks to wire the funds according to the supposed new payment instructions.

The funds were rerouted to bank accounts that Williams controlled.

She subsequently relocated the funds to other bank accounts under her control before transferring the money to two crypto exchanges and another person in Florida. 

The banks discovered William’s fraudulent activities and closed her accounts, but she kept opening new ones at other banks in an effort to keep the scheme alive. She earned approximately $25,000 from the operation and spent the funds on many personal purchases, including an Apple watch and a luxury bag.

Williams, who claimed that she perpetrated the scheme at the direction of a famous British actor with whom she became romantically involved, was sentenced to four years in prison. She’s also ordered to pay $594,037 in restitution to her victims and must also serve a three-year term of supervised release following her imprisonment.

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One physician in California has skipped town after manipulating the Medicare system to defraud the government of nearly $1.5 million.

According to a new Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, 61-year-old Medicare provider Lilit Gagikovna Baltaian of Porter Ranch, CA, has been sentenced, in absentia, to four-and-a-half years in prison for healthcare fraud.

The DOJ says the fugitive issued false certifications in Los Angeles from 2012 to 2018, costing the government $1.497 million.

“From approximately January 2012 to July 2018, she falsely certified patients to receive home health care from at least four Los Angeles area home health agencies. These certifications were used by the home health agencies to fraudulently bill Medicare.

In some instances, Baltaian pre-signed blank, undated physician certification forms knowing that the home health agencies would falsify the forms to make appear that she had seen the Medicare beneficiaries and made clinical findings to support the need for home health care, when she had done neither. Baltaian received cash payments related to these referrals and also separately billed Medicare for signing the fraudulent certifications.”

Though Baltaian pleaded guilty to a count of healthcare fraud in November of last year, the physician fraudster has since disappeared, presumably on the run from the law.

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An ex-Goldman Sachs banker is reportedly being sentenced to prison for his role in the massive $4.5 billion theft of the Malaysian State Investment Fund (1MBD).

According to a new report by NBC News, former Goldman Sachs employee Tim Leissner has been sentenced to two years behind bars for paying a part in the multibillion-dollar heist.

Prosecutors say that Leissner and others who worked for the banking giant aided Malaysia in raising $6.5 billion for the nation’s investment fund through bond sales. However, $4.5 billion of those funds were stolen, laundered via bribes and kickbacks, and used to purchase luxury goods and fund extravagant lifestyles.

The report says the scandal was far-reaching and led to the downfall of then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak in 2018, who was later convicted of crimes connected to the scheme and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Leissner is due to report to prison on September 15th. He pleaded guilty in 2018 to bribing officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi.

Says Leissner,

“The funds raised more than a decade ago could have profoundly benefited the nation and its citizens. Instead, due to my greed – and the greed of those involved alongside me – they were misappropriated.

What we did was unequivocally wrong, and I take full responsibility for my role. I deeply regret my actions, and if I could turn back time, I would undo them without hesitation.”

Leissner’s sentence includes two years of supervised release after prison and a forfeiture of nearly $44 million.

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Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any losses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

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