A 39-year-old Romanian man has pleaded guilty to stealing more than $500,000 from a US government benefits program and other crimes.

According to the Northern District of California’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, Marius Marian stole $507,916 in Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) funds from those who rely on the money to cover basic expenses.

He also pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States following an aggravated felony conviction and making false statements on his asylum application.

Beginning in March 2024, Marian fraudulently obtained EBT funds by using over 601 unique victim EBT account identifiers. EBT benefits are federal funds distributed through the California Department of Social Services to low-income individuals to use for such things as food, rent, childcare and medical expenses.

Marian used skimmer devices on ATM and point-of-sale machines to capture the victims’ EBT card numbers when the victims used the cards. He then encoded the stolen EBT account information on counterfeit bank cards and used them to fraudulently withdraw EBT funds from ATMs in Northern California.

“As a result of his scheme, Marian withdrew $507,916 in cash and intended to withdraw $611,845 in EBT funds. Marian further admitted that his conduct involved sophisticated means and caused substantial financial hardship to at least 25 victims.

Additionally, Marian admitted that on or around April 27, 2023, he knowingly submitted false statements on an application for asylum to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Specifically, Marian knowingly failed to disclose in his asylum application that he had been previously deported from the United States and that he had previously been convicted in 2019 of bank fraud.

Finally, Marian acknowledged that he had been previously deported after his 2019 conviction for bank fraud and that he thereafter illegally reentered and was found in the United States.”

For theft of the EBT funds, Marian pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison. The illegal entry into the US charge carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, while the asylum fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Marian is due back in court for sentencing on October 20th.

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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.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/SerGRAY/Natalia Siiatovskaia

A scammer pleaded guilty after participating in a scheme that convinced the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to pay out $10 million in fraudulent refunds.

Brooklyn resident Xerxes Shevar, 57, was part of a prolific international conspiracy ring involving scammers in the United States, Ghana, Nigeria and Ireland, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

The US Attorney says the conspirators obtained stolen identity info on the internet and then submitted fraudulent federal tax returns under the names of those identities. The alleged scammers also opened bank accounts in those names to receive the returns from the IRS.

One of Shevar’s co-conspirators alleges the scam ring attempted to secure around $38 million from the IRS between the tax years 2010 and 2013 and ended up receiving more than $10 million.

The scammers allegedly used stolen identities to open 3,493 bank accounts and obtain 4,563 credit cards across 443 financial institutions. In all, the scam ring allegedly victimized 11,468 individuals.

Shevar was arrested in February 2024 when he returned to the United States from Ghana. The Brooklyn resident was convicted of wire fraud conspiracy, and US District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter sentenced him earlier this month to three years of probation. The judge also ordered him to pay $290,000 in restitution.

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Plus: The Fed speaks this week – will BTC listen?

We’re kicking off today’s squeeze with something extra juicy:

BitDegree’s $30K Season 7 Airdrop

is live!

Earn Bits by simply answering questions and completing micro tasks – they’ll decide your $$ share of the prize pool when the Season ends on April 30.

Oh, and to make it even sweeter,

Uphold’s

adding an extra 1,000 USDC to the mix – but only until March 24.

No time to waste! Soo… you in or what?

GM. Crypto: half of it is rotten pears, and the other half is hidden gold apples. We’ve already done the sorting – take a bite with no fear.

Hayden Davis strikes again.

News drops: UK man continues his fight to find his lost BTC, Pavel Durov was sent back home + more

Market flavor today

Bitcoin spent the weekend hanging out in the $82K – $85K range, and the vibe of the market’s still fear.

Not without reason, tho’ – we’ve got an interesting week ahead of us:

The big one: the FOMC meeting on Wednesday.

And it won’t be your average Fed meeting. Besides their latest decision on interest rates, they’re also dropping the dot plot – aka a sneak peek at where they see rates going in Q2, Q3, Q4, and next year.

Most people expect the Fed to keep rates unchanged for now, but recent inflation numbers and a strong labor market have some worried they might delay rate cuts longer than expected.

So yeah, brace yourself for volatility – nobody really knows what’s coming, and the crypto market could go into instant reaction mode the second Fed Chair Jerome Powell opens his mouth.

At the same time, analyst Timothy Peterson noted that Bitcoin tends to pump in April and October. So, if history repeats itself… well, you know, April’s right around the corner

Plus, he looked at how long Bitcoin usually stays below its long-term growth trend before making a comeback. The magic number: four months.

If the pattern holds, he predicts that BTC could hit $126K by June.

Too optimistic? Maybe. Fun to think about? Absolutely.

So, on one hand, we’ve got uncertainty keeping retail traders cautious. But on the other? Large investors are seeing it as a buy the dip opportunity.

According to Bitwise’s André Dragosch, the 20-day rolling beta to BTC – which basically tracks how much crypto hedge funds are buying – hit a four-month high.

Translation? Confidence might be sneaking back into the market.

Be ready.

Memecoin harvest

From “Haha funny frog” to “Sir, this is a financial asset”

Data as of 07:00 AM EST.

Check out these memecoins and plenty more here.

As you go through life, you’re forced to accept some tough truths. Like how you can’t control everything. How not everyone’s going to like you (and that’s okay). How there are weirdos who pour milk before cereal…

The older you get, tho’, the less shocking these life lessons become. You just learn to deal with them.

But there’s still one lesson that doesn’t fail to make me speechless: and that’s the pure audacity of some people.

Exhibit A: Hayden Davis.

This is the dude who brought us MELANIA and LIBRA – memecoins endorsed by First Lady Melania Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei.

And what did both of these tokens have in common? They were shameless rug pulls.

Now, memecoins rug-pulling isn’t exactly groundbreaking news – we’ve seen it happen over and over again with celebrity memecoins. But when world leaders start playing the game, it raises a whole new set of concerns.

So much so that regulators took notice. In New York, lawmakers have introduced a bill to criminalize crypto fraud – specifically to target rug pulls like these.

Meanwhile, in Argentina, a lawyer requested an Interpol Red Notice for our guy Hayden.

You’d think that would be enough to make someone reconsider their life choices. But nope – like I said, the audacity.

We might as well make him Exhibit B, too, cuz Davis is back at it. AGAIN.

This time, it’s the WOLF memecoin – an attempt to cash in on rumors that Jordan Belfort (yes, the Wolf of Wall Street) might launch his own token.

And would you look at that – 82% of WOLF’s supply was controlled by the same entity.

To no one’s surprise, the token lost 99% of its value in two days.

Moral of the story? Some people will keep scamming as long as people keep falling for it. The only way to stop these people is to stop giving them opportunities.

So, before you jump into the next hyped-up memecoin, please take a step back and do your research.

News drops

James Howells’ plan to dig up his lost 8,000 BTC from a landfill got rejected by the UK Court of Appeal. He now wants to take the fight to the European Convention on Human Rights.

Debiex has to pay $2.5M after ignoring a CFTC lawsuit accusing it of running a romance scam. The platform’s team allegedly tricked people into fake relationships to gain their trust and steal their money.

Scammers are sliding into inboxes pretending to be Coinbase or Gemini. Their latest trick? Handing out fake recovery phrases, hoping you’ll set up a wallet they control. Be cautious!

The court allowed Telegram founder Pavel Durov to leave France and return to Dubai. Toncoin, closely linked to Telegram, pumped in celebration.

The Bank of Korea is saying, “Yeah, no rush on that Bitcoin thing.” Officials said they haven’t even talked about adding BTC to their reserves – because it’s too volatile.

Juicy memes