The organizer of a cryptocurrency fraud operation involving fake IDs and bank transaction reversals was handed a 63-month jail term yesterday.
Esteban Cabrera Da Corte, a 27-year-old resident of Miami who headed an elaborate cryptocurrency fraud scheme, was sentenced to 63 months in federal prison yesterday. He had pled guilty earlier this year to charges surrounding a plot from 2020 to early 2021 that utilized stolen personal information to illegally obtain cryptocurrency and then trick banks into reversing the transactions.
The sentence, handed down by Judge Katherine Polk Failla in a New York District Court, also included orders for Da Corte to pay close to $3.6 million in restitution and forfeit $1.2 million earned illegally.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called it "a scheme to steal millions of dollars by buying cryptocurrency using false and stolen identities."
As per details shared by prosecutors, Da Corte and others opened numerous accounts on a major cryptocurrency exchange using fake passports, licenses and stolen identity information. The accounts were tied to bank accounts controlled by the group and funded through a series of cash ATM deposits.
Over $4 million was used to buy cryptocurrency, quickly transferred out of the exchange, and then reversed through fraudulent claims to banks that the purchases were unauthorized. The ploy netted over $4 million in illegitimate bank transaction reversals and cost the trading platform over $3.5 million worth of cryptocurrency losses.
