Nevin Shetty was convicted of wire fraud related to secretly transferring $35 million in funds from a Seattle startup to his own cryptocurrency platform for DeFi investments in 2022.
A Seattle judge has sentenced the former CFO of a local startup to two years in prison after he was convicted of wire fraud related to cryptocurrency trading.
In an announcement Thursday, the US Department of Justice said Nevin Shetty will serve two years in prison after he “secretly transferred approximately $35 million in company funds to a cryptocurrency platform he controlled as a side business.” He transferred the funds to the HighTower Treasury platform in 2022 before the crypto market crash, which led to the discovery of the transfer.
According to the DOJ, Shetty was able to transfer funds without the knowledge of any executives or board members of the Seattle startup, and then use the money to invest in “high-yield DeFi lending protocols that promised returns of 20% or more.” He initially made $133,000 in the first month before the Terra ecosystem collapsed into a massive market downturn.
“(T)he cryptocurrency investments that Shetty made with the stolen funds quickly declined, and by May 13, 2022, the value of the investments was nearly zero,” the DOJ said. “After the $35 million was essentially gone, Shetty told two of his colleagues what he had done. He was immediately fired.”
Shetty was indicted on wire fraud charges in May 2023 and was found guilty on four counts in November 2025 after a nine-day jury trial. He was ordered to pay back the stolen money and be on supervised release for three years after serving two years in prison.
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Shetty’s 2022 case came months before the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which later led to the arrest and conviction of its former CEO, Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried. SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024, but appealed the sentence. As of Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had not issued a decision since hearing arguments in November.
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