Illegal Technologists

"Financial entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, was convicted on seven charges of fraud and conspiracy following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November 2022." source

"In February 2023, Kirchner's home in Westlake, Texas was raided by the FBI and he was charged with wire fraud for transferring $20 million in company funds to his personal bank account while employed at Slync. Leigha Simonton, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas alleged Kirchner had used the money to fund a 'lavish lifestyle', including a $16m private Gulfstream jet, a $495,000 luxury suite at a Dallas sports stadium, prestige cars including a Rolls-Royce, and membership of an exclusive Dallas-area golf club called the Vaquero." source

"The scheme targeting Outcome’s clients began in 2011 and lasted until 2017, and resulted in at least $45 million of overbilled advertising services." source

"In September 2023, he pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business. He agreed to forfeit two properties in Lenox, MA and a Porsche automobile, and pay a $6 million fine and more than $5 million in restitution to FTX. Despite prosecutors recommending a term of 5-7 years, in May 2024 Salame was sentenced to 7.5 years in federal prison." source

"Butler is a former computer security consultant and hacker who served a 13-year prison sentence, the longest sentence ever given at the time for hacking charges in the United States. He was convicted of two counts of wire fraud, including stealing nearly 2 million credit card numbers and running up about $86 million in fraudulent charges." source

"Between April 2017 and April 2020, HeadSpin raised more than $100 million from investors. But Lachwani admitted that, to obtain that financing, he provided potential investors with information about the company’s business, customers, revenue, and finances that he knew was inaccurate." source

"Levandowski agreed to plead guilty to one of the thirty-three charges initially brought against him by the Department of Justice. Originally charged with stealing documents containing trade secrets, technical specifications, and Lidar design, Levandowski's pleaded guilty to downloading an internal project tracking document called, "Chauffeur TL Weekly – Q4 2015"—a spreadsheet consisting of team goals, project metrics, and weekly status updates accessible by Levandowski's team on an unsecured Google Drive. Levandowski admitted to accessing the document about one month after leaving Google in February 2016." source

"Sentenced to to four years in prison for engaging in securities and wire fraud in connection with his scheme to defraud and mislead investors about the development of products and technology by the company he founded, Nikola Corporation (“Nikola”)." source

"According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Mike Rothenberg 'orchestrated a years-long, massive fraud and posed a substantial risk of loss to investors, with $18.8 million misappropriated.'" source

"Ross Ulbrich is an American serving life imprisonment for creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road from 2011 until his arrest in 2013." source

"Zhao pled guilty to violating the American Bank Secrecy Act by prioritizing Binance's growth over compliance with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's anti-money laundering requirements. Although Zhao only personally pled guilty to a single criminal charge, as part of plea bargain negotiations, Zhao agreed for Binance to also admit to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and to violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act." source

"James "Jimmy" Zhong is an American man who was convicted in 2022 for stealing over 51,680 bitcoin (then worth about $620,000; value as of 2023 approximately $3.4 billion) from the online black market Silk Road between 2012 and 2014." source