The Federal court in Brooklyn sentenced Patrick McDonnell, also known as “Jason Flack”, to 33 months in federal prison. McDonnel was also ordered to pay $224,350 in restitutuion to his victims. He pled guildy to cryptocurrency fraud last year after he was accused of defrauding at least ten people of around $194,000 as well as additional virtual currency funds through his company Cabbage Tech Corp., also known as Coin Drop Markets. The crime was perpetrated between November 2014 and January 2018.
McDonnell used social media to present himself as an experienced cryptocurrency trader and offered investors trading advice, as well as to purchase and trade digital currencies for them, sending them false financial statements as proof of profitable investments. In reality, he did no trading activity, he simply took the funds and use them for his own means.