The perpetrator, Rathnakishore Giri, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in 2024 for bilking investors. According to an amended plea agreement submitted ahead of Monday's sentencing hearing, Giri also admitted to soliciting funds from investors even after entering his guilty plea.

"Giri falsely promised investors that he would generate lucrative returns with no risk to their principal investment amount, which he guaranteed to return," the DOJ wrote in a release on Monday. "In reality, Giri often used money provided by new investors to repay old investors – a hallmark of a Ponzi scheme."

"In addition, Giri had a record of investment failures, including a long history of losing investors’ principal investments, and misled investors about reasons for delays when they sought to cash out their investments or otherwise obtain the return of their ‘guaranteed’ principal," the agency added.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission previously accused Giri of operating his Bitcoin derivatives scheme through entities like SR Private Equity, LLC, and NBD Eidetic Capital, LLC, beginning in 2019. The CFTC filed an enforcement action in August 2022 against Giri, his companies, and his parents, with the DOJ indicting him in November 2022 on five counts of wire fraud.

In April, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said crypto-related losses topped $11 billion in 2025, a 22% jump from 2024. The bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received at least 181,565 crypto-related complaints in 2025, and noted scams often target the elderly.

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source: https://www.tradingview.com/news/the_block:3c5102ac9094b:0-ohio-man-sentenced-to-9-years-for-running-10-million-crypto-ponzi-scheme/