Former Deutsche Bank Employee and Registered Broker Sentenced to 41 Months for Crypto Fraud
Rashawn Russell, a 28-year-old former employee of Deutsche Bank and registered broker with FINRA, has been handed a 41-month prison sentence for his involvement in a wire fraud and crypto fraud scheme that resulted in investors losing $1.5 million.
United States District Judge Hector Gonzalez delivered the sentence on Thursday, along with an order for Russell to pay restitution of over $1.5 million to the victims of his fraudulent scheme. Russell had previously pleaded guilty in September 2023 to charges of wire fraud and access device fraud.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Russell engaged in the fraud scheme between November 2020 and August 2022. During this period, he enticed multiple victims to invest with him by making false promises that their funds would be used for cryptocurrency investments and that they would earn substantial, and sometimes guaranteed, returns.
The DoJ stated that Russell misappropriated a significant portion of the victims’ assets for his personal benefit, gambling, and repaying other investors. He also failed to repay the principal investments and did not deliver the promised rates of return to the victims. When some victims requested repayment, Russell falsely claimed to have wired them money.
Between September 2021 and June 2023, Russell fraudulently obtained at least 97 credit or debit cards and 43 identification cards in the names of third parties, often taking them from gym lockers in New York and New Jersey. The DoJ revealed that Russell obtained these devices with the intention of completing unauthorized transactions.
It is important to note that Deutsche Bank has not been implicated in any wrongdoing related to Russell’s case.
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