Ryan James Crawford, a 30-year-old Miami man, has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for running a fraudulent cryptocurrency and stock investment scheme. He was also ordered to return the $988,895.85 he illegally acquired.
Known as “Brody,” Crawford marketed a new cryptocurrency called “Cheetah” and promised investors that they would become wealthy. He also claimed to be a successful stockbroker who had generated millions of dollars through similar investments and that he had access to enough money to repay potential investors. However, he lied about the low-risk and high reward of his investments and even claimed to have developed a trading software that “never lost.”
From June 2020 to March 2022, Crawford scammed almost $1 million from victims. He used the money for his own personal gain, including luxury car rentals and gambling.
After the NBC6 Investigators looked into the case, Crawford was arrested in Colorado and charged with eight counts of wire fraud. Some of his victims said they had lost tens of thousands of dollars. One victim, Dorian Godfrey, reported losing $130,000 while Humza Quadri reported losing $75,000, half of which was his parents’ money.
