Rashawn Russell, a former Deutsche Bank executive, also intended to commit fraud with stolen bank cards.
On May 31, former investment banker Rashawn Russell was sentenced in Eastern New York District Court in Brooklyn to 41 months in prison for wire fraud in a cryptocurrency scheme and an unrelated access device fraud scheme. The former Deutsche Bank executive pleaded guilty to the charges in September.
According to the Justice Department (DOJ), Russell ran the fraudulent R3 Crypto Fund between November 2020 and August 2022. The fund promised to make cryptocurrency investments and pay large, sometimes guaranteed, returns. In reality, Russell used investors’ money for his personal benefit or to repay other investors. He also falsely claimed to have wired money to investors asking to be repaid.
Russell was also a registered broker with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He could have been sentenced to 30 years in prison on the charges. He was also ordered to pay $1.5 million in restitution to the victims of the crypto scheme.
