Rathnakishore Giri, an Ohio investment manager, has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison and three years of supervised release after U.S. prosecutors said he ran a Bitcoin trading Ponzi scheme that took in more than $10 million from investors. Many of those investors were based in or around Columbus, Ohio, according to the Department of Justice.
Giri, 31, of New Albany, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of wire fraud. Prosecutors said he later admitted that, while on pretrial release and waiting for sentencing, he continued soliciting money from new crypto investors. That detail added to the case against him and sharpened the picture presented by federal authorities.
Guaranteed Bitcoin derivatives returns were central to the pitch
The Justice Department said Giri presented himself as a skilled crypto trader focused on Bitcoin derivatives. He told investors he could deliver strong returns without putting their original capital at risk. Federal prosecutors said that promise did not match what was actually happening with investor funds.
Instead of operating the trading strategy as described, Giri used money from newer investors to pay earlier ones, which the DOJ described as a hallmark of a Ponzi scheme. The department also said he had a record of investment failures. When investors tried to withdraw funds or recover what had been described as guaranteed principal, he gave misleading explanations for the delays.
CFTC civil action alleged broader fundraising
The criminal sentence followed an earlier civil case brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In 2022, the CFTC charged Giri and his companies, NBD Eidetic Capital LLC and SR Private Equity LLC, with fraud linked to digital asset trading funds.
According to the CFTC, Giri and the firms solicited more than $12 million and over 10 Bitcoin from more than 150 customers. The agency said customer money intended for digital asset trading was misused. The DOJ said the FBI investigated the criminal case and pointed victims of crypto fraud to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, for reporting.
FBI data shows crypto fraud losses stayed elevated in 2025
The sentencing comes as crypto-related fraud remains a major enforcement target in the United States. The FBI’s 2025 IC3 report logged 181,565 complaints involving cryptocurrency and $11.366 billion in losses, a 22% increase from 2024.
The same report said crypto investment fraud alone accounted for 61,559 complaints and $7.228 billion in losses during 2025. That kept investment scams among the largest sources of reported crypto losses. Giri’s case adds another federal conviction to a growing list of actions against schemes built around promises of guaranteed Bitcoin trading profits while using incoming funds to repay earlier participants.