Disgraced Lobbyist Jack Abramoff Pleads Guilty to Fraud in Crypto Case
Jack Abramoff in 2011 (Lessig/Abramoff)
Jack Abramoff has entered a plea agreement for his involvement in the alleged AML BitCoin ICO scam that has been accused of defrauding thousands of investors in 2018.
- The agreement, dated July 13, means Abramoff has pled guilty to charges of conspiring to commit wire fraud and to defraud investors.
- Abramoff was at the center of a lobbying scandal in 2005 where he overcharged clients millions and used funds to make illegal political donations. He pled guilty, served nearly four years and was released in 2010.
- In June 2017, Abramoff became marketing lead for the Las Vegas-based NAC Foundation to publicize the AML BitCoin initial coin offering (ICO).
- The AML BitCoin token was marketed as compliant with anti-money-laundering (AML) and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations; the project also said governments and public agencies were planning on adopting it.
- Per the filing, Abramoff said he became aware that no public body was actually close to adopting AML BitCoin and that NAC Foundation CEO, Roland Marcus Andrade, had “inappropriately” taken $1 million from the project’s funds.
- But Abramoff said he reached an understanding with Andrade and continued to publicize the project as well as solicit investors to purchase tokens.
- He claimed that a promotion that claimed AML BitCoin’s Super Bowel advertisement had been rejected by NBC and the NFL was false and misleading.
- Abramoff has yet to be sentenced; he faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 penalty.
- Andrade was indicted last month on money laundering and wire fraud charges; he told CoinDesk he was the victim of government corruption.
See the full court transcript below:
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