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was sentenced eight months after he admitted to wire fraud and access device fraud, and three months after his bond was revoked.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