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Ex-Deutsche Bank investment banker gets 41 months in prison for crypto fraud By Reuters
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A former Deutsche Bank investment banker was sentenced by a U.S. judge on Thursday to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty to a Ponzi fraud in which he promised investors guaranteed returns on cryptocurrency trading.
The U.S. Department of Justice said Rashawn Russell, 28, of Brooklyn, was sentenced eight months after he admitted to wire fraud and access device fraud, and three months after his bond was revoked.
Russell was also ordered to pay the victims more than $1.5 million in restitution.
A federal public defender representing Russell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russell allegedly told friends, former classmates and former colleagues at Deutsche Bank that he could generate returns of 25% in three months and that he had doubled some investors’ money at during the previous three months.
The alleged scheme ran from November 2020 to August 2022, with Russell using money to gamble and repay previous investors, according to court documents.
Prosecutors also said that in a separate fraud, Russell obtained at least 140 credit, debit and ID cards in the names of third parties and used the stolen card information to open online gambling accounts and make fraudulent purchases.
Russell was jailed in February after prosecutors accused him of continuing his identity theft scheme following his arrest. He was under house arrest.
In a letter to the sentencing judge this month, Russell said he felt “deep remorse for having victimized many of my closest friends and acquaintances,” whom he had squandered the money to fund a “crippling” gambling and drug addiction.
Russell worked at Deutsche Bank from July 2018 to November 2021, according to court and brokerage industry records.
His LinkedIn profile indicates that he started at Deutsche Bank as an analyst and was promoted to associate two years later.
Deutsche Bank has not been accused of wrongdoing.