Crypto Con Man Squeezed $700K From Investors

⏱ 3 min read

Luciano Schipelliti, 28, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, is facing up to twenty years in federal prison for running a pair of cryptocurrency investment scams between late 2018 and 2021. The feds say Schipelliti pocketed roughly $700,000 from investors, then promptly lost it all gambling on crypto and funding a lavish lifestyle.

The hustle started with the “Superstars Fund” in 2018, bringing in around $275,000. By 2019, the money was gone, but Schipelliti didn’t tell anyone. Instead, he allegedly pumped out fake monthly newsletters for two years, pretending the fund was still raking in profits. This house of cards allowed him to launch the “TTM Fund” in February 2021.

Investors, fooled by the bogus reports on the Superstars Fund, threw another $350,000 into the TTM Fund. Court papers claim Schipelliti blew through this money by September 2021 – again through reckless crypto trades and by ignoring fund rules to cover personal expenses. He kept up the pretense until the feds intervened.

Schipelliti has agreed to plead guilty to one count of wire fraud before Senior U.S. District Judge F. Dennis Saylor. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars, three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin A. Saltzman of the Securities, Financial & Cyber Fraud Unit is prosecuting the case.