A Utah man has been charged with 5 counts of wire fraud and two counts of cash laundering associated to a cryptocurrency enterprise and personal funding agency he owns, in keeping with the Division of Justice. (Spenser Heaps, Deseret Information)
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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man has been charged with 5 counts of wire fraud and two counts of cash laundering associated to a cryptocurrency enterprise and personal funding agency he owns, in keeping with the Division of Justice.
James Wolfgramm, 43, of Spanish Fork, was named in a grand jury indictment in Utah’s U.S. District Courtroom on Thursday, together with two of his corporations, Bitex LLC and Ohana Capital Monetary Inc., in keeping with the DOJ. Bitex is known as in two wire fraud counts, and Ohana Capital Monetary is known as in two wire fraud counts and two cash laundering counts.
Wolfgramm and Bitex are accused of amassing almost $1.7 million from two potential consumers of a high-powered cryptocurrency mining machine referred to as the “Bitex Blockbuster” — which doesn’t really exist, investigators mentioned. Mining for cryptocurrencies requires refined computer systems that allow a consumer to “mine,” which is how new models of the cryptocurrency are made. Mining gear additionally wants giant quantities of electrical energy to energy.
The indictment alleges that Wolfgramm displayed one of many machines in Bitex’s workplace area to purportedly show the mining machine’s real-time operations.
“In actuality, the machine was pretend, and the monitor displayed a prerecorded loop that merely gave the looks of mining exercise,” mentioned a press launch from the DOJ.
Wolfgramm and Ohana Capital Monetary are accused by investigators of amassing tens of millions of {dollars} from prospects after falsely claiming that Ohana had a board of advisors and promising prospects that their funds had been bonded. In actuality, the corporate is registered as a personal lender, and lacks accreditation as a full monetary establishment, in keeping with the Division of Justice.
The corporate is accused of spending prospects’ funds on unrelated enterprise bills with out their information, moderately than conserving them on deposit, DOJ officers mentioned.
Lastly, Wolfgramm was charged with fraudulently buying the Sports activities Metropolis complicated in Draper for $15 million in 2021. In keeping with federal prosecutors, Wolfgramm took over the property and billing of shoppers with out ever paying utilities or bills and with out making any of the promised funds to the vendor. The DOJ claims he collected almost $160,000 from prospects.
Prosecutors say Wolfgramm gave the sellers of the property a test for $1 million that bounced. Wolfgramm claimed to have paid greater than $255,000 in taxes on the property, however prosecutors say these funds failed as nicely as a result of Wolfgramm had knowingly used an account with inadequate funds.
Wolfgramm, Bitex and Ohana have confronted related allegations earlier than. In January, Wolfgramm was charged with four counts of wire fraud whereas operating his cryptocurrency enterprise and mishandling prospects’ funds.
The Division of Justice mentioned Wolfgramm has additionally used the names Semisi Niu and James Vaka Niu.