- He misled people to believe they would gain significant returns from cryptocurrency trading
- The ex-banker got them to invest in R3, a cryptocurrency he claimed to run
- His scheme incurred losses of $1.5M+ to more than two dozen investors
Rashawn Russell, a former investment banker at Deutsche Bank, will stand trial on charges of misappropriating funds from clients, whom he misled to believe would gain significant returns from cryptocurrency trading, Reuters reported.
Apart from facing three decades in prison, Russell might have to pay damages of more than $1.5 million.
A “lucrative” investment in R3
Court documentation and details presented during the plea hearing show that Russell perpetrated the sophisticated fraud scheme between November 2020 and August 2022. The ex-banker, who was also registered with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, convinced people to invest in R3, a cryptocurrency he claimed to run.
Investors lost at least $1.5M
He assured they would make huge profits and the risk was low to nonexistent. In fact, he siphoned off most of the investors' funds into his personal accounts and used them to gamble and repay previous investors.
His scheme incurred losses of at least $1.5 million to more than two dozen investors. In April, the US Department of Justice announced that he had lied to his clients about what was happening with their investments, fabricated numerous documents, and sent these to them.
An elaborate scheme
When one investor tried to get his funds back, Russell sent him a fake bank wire transfer confirmation showing he had returned the money. In another case, he sent an investor a doctored image of a bank balance purportedly taken from a bank's website, which falsely showed a lot of money was available.
According to the April indictment, his fraudulent scheme targeted multiple individuals, including his former coworkers at a financial institution known to the Grand Jury, former college classmates, and even his friends.
Before his LinkedIn page was deleted, it indicated Russell had worked at both Moody’s and JP Morgan. He started working as a banking analyst at Deutsche Bank in July 2018 and was promoted to associate two years later.
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