The FBI and federal prosecutors are accusing a New Albany man of passing himself off as an expert cryptocurrency trader while defrauding investors of at least $10 million.
Authorities arrested Rathnakishore Giri, 27, on Nov. 18 after a grand jury indicted him on five counts of wire fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. He is set to be arraigned Dec. 2 in U.S. District Court in Columbus.
If convicted, Giri faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.
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The indictment alleges that beginning in August 2020, Giri misled investors to believe he was a highly successful specialist in trading bitcoin derivatives and falsely promised them that he would invest their money in cryptocurrency, make them a lot of money and repay their principal investment amount.
Giri solicited investments directly and through his two companies, NBD Eidetic Capital and SR Private Equity LLC, according to court documents.
Instead of putting all the investor funds into cryptocurrency, authorities allege Giri diverted some of the money to pay his own expenses or repay earlier investors — a hallmark of an unlawful Ponzi scheme, according to court documents.
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Investors typically gave Giri between $2,000 and $300,000, but some individuals gave Giri more than $2 million to invest, according to court…
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