Damian Williams, america Lawyer for the Southern District of New York, introduced that CHET STOJANOVICH, a/okay/a “Chester J. Stojanovich,” was sentenced right now to a few years in jail. STOJANOVICH was sentenced for defrauding greater than a dozen victims of greater than $2 million by fraudulent misrepresentations that he would offer his prospects with specialised cryptocurrency-mining computer systems (“Miners”) and Miner-hosting providers that would offer the victims with a profitable stream of “hash energy” convertible into cryptocurrency. As a substitute, STOJANOVICH misappropriated his victims’ cash and failed to offer them with the Miners and Miner-hosting providers they’d bought from him. Stojanovich beforehand pled responsible on November 29, 2022, to at least one rely of wire fraud and was sentenced right now earlier than United States District Decide Denise Cote.
U.S. Lawyer Damian Williams mentioned: “Chet Stojanovich took benefit of a flashy new pattern within the monetary sector to swindle his victims into sending him greater than $2 million {dollars} in change for cryptocurrency-related know-how and tools that these victims by no means acquired. This case serves as one other reminder that even new monetary frontiers are fraught with old school fraud, however our profession prosecutors and legislation enforcement companions are ever as ready to root out these schemes.”
In keeping with the Indictment, statements made in courtroom, and different publicly filed paperwork on this case:
From a minimum of 2019, till his arrest in April 2022, STOJANOVICH managed numerous corporations, together with Chet Mining Co. LLC (“Chet Mining”). Beginning in roughly March 2019, STOJANOVICH engaged in a scheme to defraud individuals who had been searching for to buy Miners and Miner-hosting providers by which they anticipated to acquire “hash energy” convertible into cryptocurrency and cash. STOJANOVICH defrauded these victims by falsely telling them that: he would buy, and had bought, Miners on their behalf; and he would offer them with Miner-hosting providers and had already obtained such Miner-hosting providers for them.
In complete, STOJANOVICH fraudulently induced greater than a dozen customer-victims to pay a complete of greater than $2 million to STOJANOVICH and his corporations, ostensibly in return for Miners and Miner-hosting providers. Regardless of fraudulent representations on the contrary, STOJANOVICH: (i) failed to offer most of the Miners that he informed prospects he had acquired; (ii) failed to offer the Miner-hosting providers and cryptocurrency hash energy that he represented he would offer; (iii) employed misleading practices to create the phantasm that such Miners had been acquired and had been getting used to offer hash energy to these prospects; and (iv) misappropriated his prospects’ funds and spent the funds on unrelated and private expenditures, together with chartered air flights, resort rooms, limousines, and personal events.
Ultimately, a minimum of six of STOJANOVICH’s victims sought to carry him accountable for his fraud by suing him in a civil case, Holmes et al. v. Chet Mining, Chet Stojanovich, et ano., Case No. 20 Civ. 4448 (LJL) (S.D.N.Y.). STOJANOVICH sought to impede their efforts by mendacity beneath oath at a deposition, and mendacity to the presiding district decide, concerning the existence and placement of digital proof within the case.
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Along with his jail sentence, STOJANOVICH, 38, beforehand of New York, New York, however residing in California since his launch on bail on this case, was sentenced right now to a few years of supervised launch, forfeiture of $2,158,927, and restitution to his victims within the quantity of $2,108,927.
Mr. Williams praised the excellent work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation within the investigation of this case
This case is being dealt with by the Workplace’s Advanced Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Lawyer David Raymond Lewis is in command of the prosecution.