FACES UP TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON FOR PURLOINING OVER $9.5 MILLION
An 85-year-old disbarred attorney, DK, of Bevery Hills, California, pleaded guilty in late May to “conspiring to operate a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme,” that ended up defrauding victims out of some $9.5 million.
DK apparently falsely guaranteed high-yield profits and allowed his co-conspirators to claim that he was holding some $11 million in escrow which served to offset against any investment losses – and provided letters confirming the false statements.
Rather than invest the cash, the group diverted the monies to personal use.
In a written statement, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division noted that DK “abused his position as an attorney to earn the trust of investors and to endorse false statements about a purported cryptocurrency investment that was, in fact, a scam. Kagel and his co-conspirators defrauded their victims out of millions of dollars and used the victims’ money to line their own pockets …. When lawyers lend a veneer of legitimacy to fraudulent schemes, it can lead to devastating losses for victims. The Criminal Division and its law enforcement partners will continue to aggressively pursue such fraudsters and hold them to account.”
Scheduled to be sentenced on September 10, DK faces up to five years in prison.
For some reason, this struck us as a bit old.
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