Trendon Shavers earned a lenient sentence through good faith efforts to right the wrongs he did while improperly managing the Bitcoin Savings & Trust, Bitcoin’s first federal securities case, according to his sentencing judge.
That’s news the Bitcoin Community, which has long viewed Shavers as a no more than a fraudster, likely won’t heed.
Bitcoin Savings & Trust, initially called First Pirate Savings & Trust, ultimately stripped investors of $4.5 million. Shavers faced 40 years in prison before a plea deal brought his maximum sentence to 41 months.
Shavers’ $4.5 million ponzi scheme netted him approximately $220,000 which he spent on groceries, rent and car payments, according to court documents. Much of his profit was lost due to trading losses.
“Applying a modern spin to an age-old fraud, Trendon Shavers used a bitcoin business to run a classic Ponzi scheme,” according to prosecutor, U.S. attorney Preet Bharara.
In reading his verdict, the judge noted that Shavers, while carrying out a “classic ponzi scheme,” had tried to make things right,.
Shavers told Judge Kaplan he “ royally messed up ,” adding:: “I don’t think this is something I’ll ever fully be able to get over, but I’m going to try to make things right.”
In the first court action against Shavers, an SEC civil action, prosecutors downplayed evidence demonstrating Shavers, whose alias had been Pirateat40, had tried to make things right by paying back many customers who had sent him bitcoin’s.Nevertheless, the Bitcoin Community reviles Shavers, viewing him as one of the definitive con man in an industry wrought with fraud. When Shavers was arrested, the community celebrated, despite not knowing the full story.The sentencing comes approximately one month after Charlie Shrem’s release from prison. Shrem, the founder of Bitcoin exchange BitInstant, was arrested and convicted in 2014 of money laundering through darknet marketplace Silk Road, […]
