Las Vegas business owner found guilty of $24 million crypto ponzi scheme

Las Vegas business owner Brent C. Kovar was found guilty of orchestrating a $24 cardinal cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme through his company Profit Connect. A federal jury convicted Kovar after a nine‑day trial on 11 counts of ligament fraud, two counts of message fraud and two counts of wealth laundering. He now faces a statutory maximum penalty of 280 yards in prison. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada, Kovar falsely told investors that Profit Connect used “artifical quality bundle connected a ace machine to excavation cryptocurrency” to generate returns. He claimed the venture was profitable, promising a fixed return of 15 to 30 percent, a 100 percent money‑back guarantee and backing by hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency reserves. The prosecution stated, “Kovar knew his institution was not profitable, had nary reserves, did not and could not wage the fixed rates of instrumentality to investors, and had nary morganatic means for the money‑back guarantee. He utilized capitalist wealth to run Profit Connect, to bargain gifts for employees, to bargain a location for himself, and to repay investors arsenic if those repayments came from mining cryptocurrency and verifying cryptocurrency transactions.” The release added, “In total, Kovar fraudulently obtained $24 cardinal from astatine least 400 investors.” IRS Criminal Investigation’s San Francisco Field Office Acting Special Agent in Charge David Lowe commented, “Today’s verdict reflects the seriousness of Brent Kovar’s strategy and the interaction it had connected hundreds of investors.” He continued, “Criminals who physique operations connected mendacious guarantees, fabricated profits and nonexistent reserves, erode spot successful our fiscal system, and permission victims facing existent fiscal harm.”