A Florida man known online as "Bitcoin Rodney" pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore this week to conspiring to run an unlicensed money transmitting business tied to a $1.8 billion cryptocurrency fraud scheme, according to prosecutors.
The 56-year-old Rodney Burton of Miami, who also has a residence in Prince George's County, Maryland, admitted to promoting HyperFund, a cryptocurrency platform that prosecutors say was in fact a sweeping wire-fraud operation targeting investors around the world.
According to court documents, Burton conspired between June 2020 and January 2022 to provide unlicensed money-transmitting services that helped promote HyperFund, enriching himself in the process. The platform marketed itself to investors as a legitimate crypto investment vehicle, promising daily returns of 0.5% to 1% on "memberships" until an investor's initial stake doubled or tripled.
HyperFund claimed those payouts were funded in part by revenue from large crypto-mining operations that, prosecutors say, never actually existed. By 2021, the company had begun freezing investor withdrawals altogether.
Burton is accused of controlling a network of companies that claimed to provide consulting services, but actually functioned as unlicensed money transmitters funneling investor funds through the scheme. Prosecutors say he personally pocketed more than $7.8 million from the operation, drawing some of those proceeds from Maryland-based victims.
He faces up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. Sentencing before U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett is set for July 23. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina A. Hoffman is prosecuting the case, which authorities said reflects continued scrutiny of cryptocurrency platforms accused of using investment hype to disguise fraud.
According to a report from Rolling Stone, "Bitcoin Rodney" relied on celebrity pals like actor Jamie Foxx and rapper Rick Ross to help boost his profile, and hosted a crypto conference in Miami in 2021 that featured appearances from "Shark Tank" investor Draymond Green, "Wolf of Wall Street" author Jordan Belfort, singer Akon, and comedian Tiffany Haddish.
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