Ohio Investment Manager Gets 9 Years for $10 Million Bitcoin Trading Ponzi Scheme
Rathnakishore Giri, a 31-year-old investment manager from New Albany, Ohio, is heading to federal prison for nine years after running a Bitcoin trading Ponzi scheme that robbed investors of $10 million. A judge also handed him three years of supervised release following his guilty plea on one count of wire fraud in October 2024.
Giri falsely promised guaranteed returns on Bitcoin derivatives trading, using new investor funds to pay earlier participants, the defining hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. Rather than putting investor money to work in any legitimate market, he simply recycled it to keep the illusion alive.
What made the scheme particularly brazen was how Giri packaged himself. He created the appearance of success by presenting himself as a wealthy investor with a garage of luxury cars including two Lamborghinis, a Tesla and an Audi R8, a collection of high-end watches, private jet flights, and luxury vacation rentals. The lifestyle was the pitch, and investors bought it.
The audacity didn’t stop at sentencing. Even after pleading guilty in October 2024, Giri continued soliciting new cryptocurrency investors while on pretrial release, causing additional harm to new victims as federal prosecutors prepared for his sentencing hearing.
The Department of Justice sentencing announcement confirmed the nine-year term, with authorities noting this Bitcoin trading Ponzi scheme as part of a wider and worsening trend. According to the FBI, Americans lost more than $11 billion to crypto-related crimes in 2025, a 22% increase from the previous year.
Enforcement is intensifying in response. Last year, two Estonian nationals were sentenced to 16 months in prison for their role in the $577 million HashFlare Ponzi scheme. More recently, the former CEO of crypto investment firm Goliath Ventures was arrested on federal charges of wire fraud and money laundering, after allegedly operating a Ponzi scheme that drew in $328 million, a case that later pulled in JPMorgan Chase via lawsuit over allegations the bank failed to flag the fraud.
The Giri case is a sharp reminder that in crypto, a flashy lifestyle and confident promises are not the same as a legitimate investment strategy, and that federal prosecutors are increasingly willing to make that point from a courtroom.
