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- The Manhattan Court recently witnessed the lenient sentence to an escrow agent who was charged of deceiving $3.25 million from his client
- The judge, Edgard Ramos found out that the agent was himself frauded by a company who promised to sell 500 Bitcoin against $3.25 million
- Randy Craig, the fugitive and his attorney P. Reichenthal, both were charged for frauding John Barry Thompson and are held before the United States District court
An escrow agent has dodged his sentence to imprisonment. He lied about being undergoing a fraud himself of an amount worth $3.25 million. The judge of the court could not sentence him to jail as he claimed to be a fraud victim himself. The man had deceived the federal court. He claimed that he had been deceived by a crypto manager of frauding Bitcoin worth $3.25 million.
On February 4th the United States federal district judge Edgardo Ramos ordered a repayment of $3.25 million by John Barry Thompson, the founder of Volantis Market Making. In October, 2020, Barry accepted his crime and pleaded guilty.
The Crime that was committed by John Barry Thompson
Law 360, a legal publication law, Edgardo Ramos, the Judge of the proceedings noted that Thompson did not have any crude wrong intention, and that being a fraud victim himself made him incompetent to pay back the money to his investment manager. The agent was however lying but since he had pleaded guilty the judge considered his condition and just sentenced him for a supervised release for a duration of three years only. The judge wrote in his report that Although Thompson had engaged himself in some serious crime of stealing money, he did not do it on purpose, and that it was a very unusually committed fraud. Due to the strong impact of Covid 19 on the prisons of the United States, the judge also willingly granted some leeway to Thompson. Due to the unavailability of vaccines and the threat of the viral infection the Judge mentioned that the judicial system of the United States should keep the correctional facilities as relieved as possible.
The story behind the fraud
Back in 2018, $3.25 million was sent to the escrow agent to purchase 500 Bitcoins by the iterative OTC, so that he could purchase it on their behalf. While Thompson, as an agent was purchasing the Bitcoin for his client, the company to whom he paid the $3.25 million for the purchase, did not provide him with any Bitcoin, which caused huge losses to him. So, now the fraud charges have been levied on a fugitive named Randy Craig Levine and Phillip Reichenthal, the attorney. They are facing the charges before the United States district court of Manhattan.
