Ponzi

2024

Gustavo Rodriguez, one of the promoters of the cryptocurrency mining and trading firm IcomTech convicted of wire fraud, will have a few more days to prepare for his testimony and cross-examination before sentencing in a New York courtroom.
In an Oct. 22 hearing in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Rodriguez’s lawyers requested Judge Jennifer Rochon grant an evidentiary hearing, claiming the former IcomTech promoter wanted to testify at his March 2024 trial. Judge Rochon said the court would hear testimony from Rodriguez and a witness on Oct. 25.
Rodriguez was one of two IcomTech promoters — along with his colleague David Brend — charged in the indictment against the project’s founder, David Carmona. Authorities alleged IcomTech amounted to a crypto-based Ponzi scheme, siphoning more than $8 million from users between 2018 and 2019.
Caroma pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in December 2023 and was <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/founder-of-crypto-ponzi-icomtech-receives-10-year-prison-sentence" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">sentenced to 10 years in prison</a> in October 2024. 
Brend and Rodriguez went to trial, and a jury <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/icomtech-crypto-ponzi-promotors-fraud-conviction-us-attorney" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">found them guilty</a> of one count of wire fraud conspiracy in March 2024. In January, Judge Rochon <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/icomtech-ceo-sentenced-wire-fraud" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">sentenced former IcomTech CEO</a> Marco Ochoa to five years after his guilty plea on similar charges.
“IcomTech was a large-scale cryptocurrency scam founded by David Carmona that defrauded numerous investors,” said US Attorney Damian Williams at the founder’s guilty plea in December 2023. “Carmona and his co-defendants founded IcomTech on lies, and siphoned money away from victims at every opportunity.”<iframe width="100%" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3k-A0MP_xVE" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h3 id="related-to-other-crypto-scams">Related to other crypto scams?</h3>
At the time of publication, Brend was scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 22. It’s unclear what evidence Rodriguez may intend to present to the court on Oct. 25, but his lawyers cited parallels with the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-ponzi-airbit-three-sentenced-prison" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">AirBit crypto Ponzi scheme</a>, for which many former executives went to prison.
Related: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/fed-president-kashkari-bitcoin-used-criminal-activity" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">‘Being this wrong should be illegal’ — Crypto pundits slam Fed’s Kashkari</a>
According to sentencing guidelines, Rodriguez and Brend face a maximum of 20 years and 17-and-a-half years in prison, respectively. Prosecutors requested a judge impose a sentence of 160 months for Rodriguez, while his lawyers requested time served.
“David Brend and Gustavo Rodriguez chose to go to trial rather than accepting responsibility for how they callously destroyed others’ lives in order to enrich their own,” said the US government in an Oct. 17 sentencing submission.
The sentencing of Brend and Rodriguez would mark the beginning of the end for the criminal cases brought against several former IcomTech executives in 2022. The indictment was unsealed the same week as the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.&nbsp;&nbsp;
FTX’s court cases are also slowly drawing to a close as the final two executives named in the same <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-years-prison-hold" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-sentenced-years-prison-hold">indictment as former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried</a> and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison prepare for sentencing hearings within a few weeks. 
Nishad Singh is <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ftx-nishad-singh-time-served-sentencing-recommendation" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">scheduled to appear in court</a> on Oct. 30, and Gary Wang has a sentencing hearing set for Nov. 20.
Magazine: <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/celsius-alex-maskinsky-ftx-sam-bankman-fried-court-inner-city-press-x-hall-of-flame/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">‘Less flashy’ Mashinsky set for less jail time than SBF: Inner City Press, X Hall of Flame</a>

Judge delays sentencing of IcomTech promoter to allow testimony

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