A podcaster turned crypto conman swindled investors out of $2 million, the exhaust of flawed businesses and pa culture references forward of vanishing—until a Vegas arrest sealed his fate.
From Podcast Standing to Penal complex: How Merchants Were Fooled for Years
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on March 14 that Brooklyn podcaster and cryptocurrency personality Thomas John Sfraga, moreover called “T.J. Stone,” has been sentenced to Forty five months in jail for wire fraud. U.S. District Resolve Frederic Block handed down the sentence in federal court in Brooklyn, moreover ordering Sfraga to forfeit $1,337,700, with restitution to make plug later. Sfraga, who pleaded guilty in Might maybe well well fair 2024, defrauded accurate estate and cryptocurrency investors of extra than $2 million via flawed schemes, together with a alternate named after a fictional company from the tv show Seinfeld.
Per court filings, between 2016 and 2022, Sfraga posed as a profitable entrepreneur and the proprietor of companies reminiscent of Construct Robust Properties LLC and Vandelay Contracting Corp., a name referencing “Vandelay Industries” from Seinfeld. Prosecutors said:
Sfraga held himself out as ‘T.J. Stone,’ a serial entrepreneur with journey in accurate estate development, media household, podcasting, and cryptocurrencies, which integrated appearing as the emcee of many cryptocurrency occasions in Fresh York.
Authorities printed that he deceived a minimum of 17 victims in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and Long Island into investing in flawed ventures, together with flawed accurate estate deals and a non-existent digital asset blueprint.
One sufferer modified into as soon as overjoyed to loan Sfraga $100,000 for a development project that never existed. Any other modified into as soon as tricked into placing money in a bogus crypto funding, as prosecutors outlined: “On but one other event, Sfraga overjoyed a sufferer to make investments in a fictitious cryptocurrency ‘digital pockets.’” As a alternative of investing the money, he spent it on non-public charges and to pay off earlier victims. When law enforcement closed in, he fled to Arizona below a false identification nonetheless modified into as soon as later arrested in Las Vegas after skipping out on a invoice at the Wynn Casino.
Emphasizing that the fraud precipitated extreme monetary and emotional damage to folk who relied on him, U.S. Licensed official John J. Durham condemned Sfraga’s actions:
Sfraga callously stole from chums, next-door neighbors, and the fogeys of children who performed on groups alongside with his own children, as successfully as from particular person cryptocurrency investors.
