Nevada Man Pleads Guilty In $722 Million Bogus Crypto Investment

A Nevada man has acknowledged to participating in the money laundering plan for the Bitclub Network, a $722 million fake crypto operation.

Gordon Brad Beckstead of Henderson, Nevada, pled guilty Friday in connection with the Bitclub Network scheme, the US Department of Justice reported.

Beckstead, 57, entered a plea of guilty by videoconference in a Newark, New Jersey, court hearing on Friday, according to a news release from the Internal Revenue Service’s Las Vegas Field Office.

He faces a potential sentence of 23 years in jail and a fine of $600,000 on the money laundering conspiracy charge and the charge of assisting in the preparation of a fraudulent tax return.

Nevada Man In Hot Water

Between April 2014 and December 2019, the DOJ announcement noted, the phony BitClub Network solicited money from investors in exchange for shares in a bogus cryptocurrency mining pool. Investors were compensated for bringing in new investors.

Matthew Brent Goettsche, the developer and operator of the BitClub Network, Russ Albert Medlin, Silviu Catalin Balaci, Joseph Frank Abel and Jobadiah Sinclair Weeks were all indicted in December 2019 for their roles in the scheme.

Beckstead, at the direction of Goettsche, created and controlled numerous entities that were used by Beckstead, Goettsche, and others to conceal Goettsche’s association with the BitClub Network and to hide income earned by Goettsche through his operation of the BitClub Network, according to a news release from the US Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey.

The Companion

Beckstead, a former certified public accountant (CPA), helped Goettsche prepare phony federal tax returns for 2017 and 2018, which allowed him to avoid paying more than $20 million in federal income taxes.

The Nevada individual admitted to the DOJ that he knew the reports were false because they failed to account for more than $60 million in revenue generated by the Bitclub Network.

According to the Department of Justice,

“Money laundering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and a maximum fine of $500,000, or double the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is larger.”

The tax crime is punishable by up to three years in prison and a $100,000 fine, according to the Department of Justice.

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