Oklahoma man gets five years for leading $9.4 million crypto investment fraud scheme

An Oklahoma man was sentenced to five years in prison after being found to have led a $9.4 million cryptocurrency investment fraud scheme. 

Travis Ford, 36, who was the CEO, co-founder, and top trader of Wolf Capital Crypto Trading LLC, was sentenced on Friday. He was also ordered to pay $1 million in forfeiture and over $170,000 in restitution, according to a statement from the Justice Department. 

Prosecutors say Ford raised money from about 2,800 investors in 2023 through his company's website and social media. 

Ford said he was a "sophisticated trader," but prosecutors said he later admitted in his guilty plea for wire fraud that he knew the investment returns he promised to customers could not be consistently achieved. Ford told investors that Wolf Capital would return 1%-2% per day, but prosecutors said Ford knew that was not happening and instead that money was being lost. 

At one point in 2023, Ford attempted to quell concerns by telling investors that "[e]verything is safe and I will prove it in the morning to stop all the BS FUD [Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt] about us scamming, it's just simple math at this point," according to a court filing. 

"Instead, Ford and his co-conspirators allegedly made such false promises to induce members of the public to invest money in the company. Ford then misappropriated and diverted investor funds to benefit himself and his co-conspirators, to the financial detriment of investors," prosecutors said on Friday.