Ohio man pleads guilty for $30 million crypto investment scam

Hacks • September 9, 2021, 3:53PM EDT
The Block

Michael Ackerman, an Ohio-based man who headed an alleged $30 million cryptocurrency investment scam, pled guilty to wire fraud on Wednesday, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). 

Prosecutors said that starting in 2017, Ackerman told victims they could invest funds that would then be traded for cryptocurrency, claiming that the fund uses an algorithm that would profit the investors 15% every month. 

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He falsified documents and other communications with investors to assert that the crypto fund grew in value, according to the DOJ release. Ackerman claimed that the overall fund had grown to be worth $315 million, though it had actually always remained under $5 million. 

Ackerman used victims' funds to purchase jewelry, vehicles, travel, and other personal luxury goods and services. The Ohio man also agreed to forfeit over $36,000,000 worth of personal assets bought using victim investments. 

Ackerman will be sentenced on January 5, 2022, and could face a maximum sentence of 20 years for wire fraud, according to the DOJ.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.