Crypto ’Family Business’ Ends in Handcuffs: Father-Son Team Gets Prison for $12M Fraud
Another day, another crypto scam—but this one had a twisted family twist. A father-son duo just got sentenced for running a $12 million Ponzi scheme, proving blood may be thicker than water but greed trumps both.
How they did it: Promised moon-shot returns, delivered empty wallets. Classic playbook—flashy website, fake testimonials, and just enough technical jargon to sound legit. Investors bought the dream, got the nightmare.
The kicker? They blew the loot on luxury cars and vacations. Because nothing says ’trust us with your life savings’ like a fleet of Lamborghinis parked outside a rented McMansion.
Lesson for crypto newbies: If an ’investment opportunity’ sounds like a mob movie plot, maybe skip the family discount. The SEC certainly did.
$12 Million In Investor Funds Drained In Scheme
According to an April 23 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Austin and his son Brandon fraudulently operated as crypto brokers for large sums of digital assets in a crypto scam and made short-term crypto investments in hopes of securing high returns for entrepreneurs and investors.
Father-Son Duo Implicated in $12M #Crypto Scheme, Long Island Man Sentenced to 18 Years !
Eugene William Austin Jr., aka Hugh Austin, has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for leading a $12 million crypto scam with his son, Brandon, defrauding over two dozen victims.… pic.twitter.com/k4OBUJrekM
The father-son duo, who often requested loans from friends and associates while vowing to return them with interest, also looked for high-net-worth people to provide investments for small businesses and startups.
In reality, the Austins allegedly misappropriated investor funds in their crypto scam, spending on luxury hotels, flights, restaurants and more while making “nominal payments to victims to prolong the scheme.”
“For years, Hugh Austin was the leader of a fraud and money laundering scheme that stole more than $12 million from more than two dozen victims,” said Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“Austin involved his own son in his crimes, working with him to rip off victims and spending investor money on personal expenses, like luxury hotels,” he added. “Thanks to the work of the career prosecutors of this Office and our law enforcement partners, Austin will now be held accountable for the harm he caused to individual investors and others.”
Father-Son Duo Gets Jail Time
In addition to prison time, the elder Austin has been sentenced to three years of supervised release and pay to over $18 million in restitution and forfeiture.
Brandon Austin was previously sentenced to four years behind bars for his role in the digital asset scheme.
Brandon is currently serving his sentence at Lewisburg Federal Correctional Institution, while Hugh Austin is expected to carry out the remainder of his sentence at Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center.
