86-Year-Old Crypto-Trump Will Have to Pay $14 Million

David Kagel is a Californian lawyer. He is 86 years old and has been retired for some time, but he has not relaxed, quite the contrary. According to the prosecution, he has started a second activity, if you want to call it that, that of a crypto fraudster. Investigations into a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme, entirely based on cryptocurrencies, led the police to Kagel's residence. Hounded, the former lawyer admitted that he was the key figure behind the scam. The prosecutor sentenced him to five years' probation and a $14 million fine.

Crypto Scam has no Age

The ruling that closes, at least for the moment, the case, was filed on 8 October by Gloria Navarro, a judge of the Las Vegas Federal Court. The crypto fraudster admitted that he was associated with committing a fraud on crypto-commodities.

Kagel is currently in a Las Vegas senior residence, in poor health. It is there that he will serve the entirety of his sentence. He will have to wear a monitoring device at all times. Apparently, bad habits are not lost in old age.

The Scam Staging

David Kagel was formally charged last year, when the clues and evidence accumulated against him had become overwhelming. Government prosecutors (the scam set up by the ex-lawyer and his accomplices became a federal investigation) said that from December 2017 to June 2022, the legal professional and two other accomplices, who are still being investigated, allegedly induced numerous victims to invest in a fraudulent trading scheme carried out by crypto-bots capable of returning high returns for no risk.

During the five years they carried out the crypto-scam, the three promoted and solicited fraudulent investments. In this way, they managed to put together the sum of around $15 million, which was poured almost entirely into various cryptocurrency-based trading programmes.

Hagel's role in the scheme was allegedly that of a guarantor. The former lawyer would draft letters on his law firm's letterhead and send them to victims. The victims, feeling comforted by the word of a legal professional, gained confidence in the operation and were led to invest their money. The programme indeed seemed legitimate, despite the presence of bots.

When the Knot Comes to the Comb, the Crypto-Thief ends up in the Cell

Hagel's scheme guaranteed a full refund of the initial amount and a profit that could range between 20 and 100 per cent of what was invested in 30 days. Of course, it was too rosy a prospect to be real, but the promise, backed by the word of a lawyer who claimed - lying - to have been an investor in crypto for decades, was enough to fool many. When this was not achieved, the excuse of market unpredictability was given.

The former lawyer had his licence to operate revoked in 2023. Hagel had been suspended before, in 1997 and 2012. On both occasions, his conduct had been deemed unfit for his profession. The professional's alleged accomplices, David Saffron and Vincent Mazzotta, have pleaded not guilty and will go on trial next April, in a Los Angeles court.

The FBI and police forces of California and Nevada did a good job, tracking down some dangerous criminals who exploited grey areas in the knowledge of some unscrupulous (and many gullible) investors, to embezzle capital from them in an underhand and illegal manner. The knots in their scheme, however, as they say, have come to the boil.

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