Russell engaged in a scheme to induce multiple victims to invest with him based on false promises.
Rashawn Russell, a 28-year-old former Deutsche Bank AG investment banker, received a 41-month prison sentence for fraud, including a cryptocurrency Ponzi-like scheme and a separate access device fraud.
The sentencing took place in the Eastern New York District Court in Brooklyn. In addition to his prison term, Russell must pay the victims $1.5 million in restitution.
Prosecutors also claim that Russell enticed friends, college mates, and former work colleagues to invest in his business and digital assets venture, stating that it would bring them high profits.
He told some investors they would get 25% back; some can got up to 100% in false claims. Nonetheless, the money from the new investors was used to pay the earlier participants and solve individual expenses, including gambling.
In a criminal activity, from September 2021 to June 2023, Russell fraudulently acquired at least 97 credit and debit cards and 43 identification cards using third parties’ details. He mostly stole these from gym lockers across New York and New Jersey and used them to carry out unauthorized transactions.
Russell worked in the financial institutions group at Deutsche Bank from 2018 to 2021. His criminal activities persisted until his arrest in April 2023.