SAN JOSE – Jerry Ji Guo was sentenced immediately for his function is a scheme to defraud his shoppers of money and cryptocurrency in reference to an preliminary coin providing, introduced United States Lawyer David L. Anderson and Federal Bureau of Investigation Particular Agent in Cost Craig D. Truthful. Guo was ordered to pay $4,392,636.14 in restitution, and was sentenced to a time period of six months in jail. The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Beth Labson Freeman, U.S. District Decide.
Guo, 33, of San Francisco, pleaded responsible to the cost on August 26, 2019. In pleading responsible, Guo admitted he represented himself as an preliminary coin providing guide and promised his shoppers he would carry out advertising and publicity companies. Slightly than carry out these companies, Guo embezzled the shoppers’ money and cryptocurrency.
“Some criminals imagine mistakenly that cryptocurrency is past the attain of legislation enforcement,” mentioned U.S. Lawyer Anderson. “This case exhibits we will use prison forfeiture to compensate fraud victims even when cryptocurrency is used within the fraud.”
“The FBI is tasked with pursuing crimes and the varied means and strategies that criminals use to commit these crimes,” mentioned FBI San Francisco Particular Agent in Cost Craig D. Truthful. “Within the monetary sector, cryptocurrency has emerged as a big risk because it affords criminals with an area to conduct exercise that’s significantly troublesome to hint and detect,” he mentioned. “On this case, the FBI relied upon companions within the non-public sector to reply appropriately to authorized course of so the FBI might make efforts to find and seize stolen cryptocurrency.”
A federal grand jury indicted Guo on November 15, 2018, charging him with eight counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Guo pleaded responsible to 1 rely and the remaining counts have been dismissed.
Along with pleading responsible, Guo agreed to cooperate with the federal government within the identification and return of property by the forfeiture course of. On November 14, 2019, the federal government obtained a stipulated utility for a preliminary order of forfeiture. Additional, the federal government obtained warrants to grab the stolen money and cryptocurrency, and on February 26, 2020, obtained a last order of forfeiture in opposition to the stolen property. Accordingly, the federal government now is able to return the stolen property to the victims.
In line with papers filed by the federal government, the present worth of the money and cryptocurrency is now estimated to be greater than $20 million. The Cash Laundering and Asset Restoration Part, a part of the Division of Justice’s Felony Division in Washington, D.C., will use the sufferer restoration course of to return stolen property to victims.
Along with the jail time period and restitution, Decide Freeman additionally sentenced the defendant to a three-year interval of supervised launch.
Assistant United States Attorneys Daniel Kaleba and Chris Kaltsas prosecuted the case with the help of Elise Etter. The prosecution is the results of an investigation by the FBI.
