Long Island Man sentenced to 18 years for $ 12 million father-and-son crypto-fraud

Long Island -resident Eugene William Austin Jr. has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a crypto fraud plan of $ 12 million.

Austin, who was also called “Hugh Austin”, was found guilty of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to carry out money and conspiracy to commit interstate transport of stolen ownership in September 2024 after a jury court.

The 62-year-old, in collaboration with his son Brandon, posed as a broker for the sale of large quantities of Cryptocurrency To cheat entrepreneurs and investors. According to a document from the Ministry of Justice (DOJ), one of this fake -Crypto deals was worth a whopping $ 5 million, with many others in the $ 500,000 series.

The father-and-son team also threw crypto investments in the short term with promises of high efficiency and claimed that they could secure financing for startups and small companies via a network of people with a high NetNet.

More than 24 victims are supposed to have been struck by the scheme, many of whom were considered to be friends or acquaintances of the couple. In addition to the 18-year prison sentence, Austin was commissioned to forfeit $ 6,062,564 and pay a refund for a total of $ 12,662,564. He was also sentenced to three years of guided release.

Austin’s son Brandon was previously sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the scheme.

The scammers spent their unlawfully obtained profit on financing a lush lifestyle, including luxury hotels, restaurants, shops, money transfer to family members, as well as nominal payments to victims to extend the scheme. Austin was forced to turn off a luxury E-P250 Jaguar SUV at the time of his arrest.

Long Island Swindlers

Despite the widespread nature of Austin’s crimes, the case is by no means the largest crypto -scam operation that has come from Long Island in recent years.

In 2022, Eddy Alexandre was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in a crypto Ponzi schedule of $ 248 million.

Alexandre has more than 25,000 investors, many of whom came from the Haitian community of Long Island, have shared to invest in an alleged Cryptocurrency and the Warehouses Trade Platform called Eminifx, with a fake return of 5%.