A Seattle judge sentenced former startup chief financial officer Nevin Shetty to two years in prison after a jury convicted him of wire fraud for secretly moving about $35 million in company funds to a cryptocurrency platform he controlled.
According to the U.S. Justice Department, Shetty transferred the funds in 2022 to the HighTower Treasury platform, a side business he controlled, and used the money to invest in high-yield decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols promising returns of 20% or more. He initially recorded about $133,000 in gains in the first month, but the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and a broader crypto market downturn caused the investments to plummet. By May 13, 2022, the DOJ said the value of those investments was nearly zero.
Shetty moved the funds without the knowledge of other executives or board members. After the funds were essentially gone, he confessed to two fellow executives and was immediately fired. He was indicted on wire fraud charges in May 2023 and found guilty on four counts in November 2025 after a nine-day jury trial.
The sentence includes an order to repay the stolen funds and three years of supervised release following imprisonment.
Shetty’s case occurred months before the high-profile collapse of the FTX exchange. Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2024 and has filed an appeal; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had not announced a decision after hearing arguments in November.
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