Rashawn Russell, a former investment banker at Deutsche Bank, is slated to admit guilt to charges of cryptocurrency fraud, according to CryptoPotato. Russell initially refuted the accusations made against him, but the case has since been sent to a magistrate judge for a hearing on a change of plea, indicating a change in his legal stance.
The licenced broker, who is 27 years old, previously denied taking part in fraudulent cryptocurrency trades. Recent court documents, though, point to a dramatic change in his defence. Russell’s legal case has been repeatedly postponed, allowing his counsel to look into the possibility of a plea agreement with the authority. A startling development in a case that at first appeared to be headed for a trial is the suggestion made by the change of plea hearing that Russell intended to accept guilt in relation to the fraud allegations.
This development comes at the same time as Deutsche Bank has decided to provide institutional clients with custody options for their cryptocurrency and tokenized assets. This action will enable Deutsche Bank to hold a limited selection of cryptocurrencies and tokenized versions of traditional financial assets, indicating the expanding convergence between traditional finance and the world of digital assets.
Russell’s legal issues started in April when he was arrested in Brooklyn, New York, and was facing a potential term of up to 20 years in jail. He was charged with deceiving investors by guaranteeing high profits on their cryptocurrency investments. In order to falsely depict large liquidity, according to the prosecution, he allegedly fabricated forgeries while diverting a sizable amount of the investors’ money for personal purposes, such as gambling and paying back other investors. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a separate action against Russell, accusing him of deceiving small-time investors in the R3 Crypto Fund, a trading fund for digital assets. Between November 2020 and July 2022, according to the CFTC, Russell syphoned about $1 million from consumers without authorization.