Briefly
- Brian Garry Sewell was sentenced to a few years in federal jail on wire fraud and unlicensed cash transmitting prices.
- Prosecutors mentioned he misled traders about his expertise whereas working a cash-to-crypto enterprise with out registration.
- The case mixed fraud allegations with prices tied to changing bulk money into crypto.
A 54-year-old Utah man was sentenced to a few years in federal jail for working an unlicensed cash-to-crypto enterprise and defrauding traders of almost $3 million.
Brian Garry Sewell of Washington County was sentenced to 36 months in jail, adopted by three years of supervised launch, after pleading responsible to wire fraud.
The decide additionally ordered greater than $3.8 million in mixed restitution, together with funds to traders and the Division of Homeland Safety.
The sentence will run concurrently with a separate three-year time period imposed in one other federal case involving an unlicensed money-transmitting enterprise, in response to the Justice Division.
The case suggests federal authorities are more and more prepared to pursue smaller, regional crypto operators beneath the identical statutes and sentencing frameworks used for bigger platforms and concrete hubs.
Federal prosecutors mentioned Sewell “obtained cash from at the very least 17 traders by mendacity about his expertise, training, and talent to generate giant returns” between December 2017 and April 2024, in response to public paperwork tracing the case.
“Sewell preyed on his victims by mendacity about his expertise and promising returns he couldn’t ship, leaving people and households to bear the results of his deception,” Particular Agent in Cost Robert Bohls of the Salt Lake Metropolis FBI mentioned in an announcement.
By bringing parallel fraud and transmission prices in Utah, prosecutors look like signaling that geographic scale or informality gives no insulation from enforcement when crypto is used to maneuver or disguise illicit funds.
“It’s more and more frequent, nearly ‘customary apply,’ in circumstances involving retail-level crypto fraud,” Andrew Rossow, public affairs lawyer and CEO of AR Media Consulting, advised Decrypt.
The unlicensed cash transmitting cost “acts as a fail-safe for prosecutors: it secures a felony conviction primarily based on the unlawful operation itself, no matter whether or not the jury believes the defendant meant to defraud anybody,” Rossow defined.
“Given Utah is much from Wall Road, the DOJ is demonstrating the breadth of its investigative assets,” he mentioned, including that the case “demonstrates that the dimensions of monetary loss for traders isn't the only issue for the Justice Division to maneuver ahead” and handle illicit monetary actions head-on.
The federal prosecution in opposition to Sewell unfolded over roughly two years, starting with investigative exercise tied to his cash-to-crypto operations in 2020, adopted by indictments in 2024.
Accounting for the underlying conduct, the case stretched almost 5 years from investigation to decision.
Courtroom information present Sewell initially pleaded not responsible after indictment, with prosecutors advancing parallel wire fraud and unlicensed cash transmitting prices by means of pretrial proceedings.
Sewell’s fraudulent habits resulted in additional than $2.9 million in sufferer losses, prosecutors mentioned.
The unlicensed cash transmitting conduct cited in Sewell’s sentencing traces again to an earlier federal indictment in Washington County, the place IRS prosecutors alleged he and one other defendant operated a cash-to-crypto enterprise.
That scheme moved over $5.4 million by means of Sewell’s Rockwell Capital Administration, forming the inspiration for prices that later ran alongside his wire fraud case.
