Nevin Shetty was convicted of wire fraud related to secretly moving $35 million in funds from a Seattle startup to his own crypto platform in 2022 to use for DeFi investments.
A federal judge in Seattle sentenced the former chief financial officer of a local startup to two years in prison after he was convicted of wire fraud related to a cryptocurrency business.
In a statement released on Thursday, the US Justice Department said Nevin Shetty would serve two years in prison after he “secretly moved approximately $35 million in company funds to a cryptocurrency platform he controlled as a side business.” He moved the funds to the HighTower Treasury platform in 2022 before a crypto market downturn, resulting in the disclosure of the transfer.
According to the DOJ, Shetty was able to transfer the funds without any executives or board members at the Seattle startup knowing about it, then using the money to invest in “high-yield DeFi lending protocols that promised to generate returns of 20% or more.” He initially earned $133,000 in the first month before the collapse of the Terra ecosystem contributed to a significant market downturn.
“[T]he cryptocurrency investments that Shetty made with the stolen funds soon began declining and by May 13, 2022, the value of the investments was nearly zero,” said the DOJ. “After the $35 million was essentially gone, Shetty told two of his fellow executives what he had done. He was immediately fired.”
Shetty was indicted on charges of wire fraud in May 2023 and found guilty on four counts in November 2025 after a nine-day jury trial. He has been ordered to pay back the stolen funds and be on supervised release for three years after serving his two-year sentence.
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Shetty’s 2022 case happened months before the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which later resulted in the arrest and conviction of its former CEO, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried. SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 but has filed an appeal. As of Friday, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had not announced any decision since it heard arguments in November.
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