CFO Gets Prison Time After Losing $35 Million of Company Money in Crypto Side Hustle

In brief

• A Washington man has been jailed for two years for diverting $35 million in company funds to a DeFi platform he operated.
• Nevin Shetty was found guilty of wire fraud last November for secretly moving the funds to HighTower Treasury.
• Following the Terra collapse, the value of the funds crashed to near zero, with the impact on Shetty’s employer causing it to lay off 60 people.

A Washington man has been sentenced to two years in prison after diverting $35 million in funds from his former employer to his own DeFi platform—and losing nearly all of it. Nevin Shetty, 42, was found guilty of wire fraud last November for taking and misusing funds from the private software company at which he worked. Shetty, who drafted a “conservative” company investment policy, secretly moved $35 million in company funds to his side business HighTower Treasury, after being told in April 2022 that his role as CFO would end due to performance issues. Those funds were then invested in high-yield DeFi lending protocols that promised returns of 20% or more.

Per the DOJ’s statement, Shetty planned to pay his employer a “comparatively small, fixed amount,” keeping the remainder of the returns for HighTower. Initially, the scheme paid off, earning some $133,000 in its first month for Shetty and his HighTower business partner.  The wheels came off in May 2022, following the Terra collapse and the subsequent crypto winter, with Shetty’s HighTower crypto investments plummeting in value from $35 million to near zero. After confessing to colleagues at his employer, Shetty was fired from the company, which, according to trial judge Tana Lin, suffered “significant and severe effects” as a result of his theft, adding that his actions “almost put the company out of business.”

Shetty’s two-year prison sentence is significantly lower than the nine years requested by the prosecution, which urged for “stern punishment” to reflect the “web of lies” and impact on the company, which was forced to lay off 60 people in order to adapt to the “massive loss” caused by his fraud. Shetty was ordered to pay $35,000,100 and will be placed on supervised release for three years after prison. Judge Lin also imposed a special condition blocking him from serving as an officer or director of a company without prior permission from the probation office.