A federal jury convicted Revenue Join proprietor Brent C. Kovar on 15 fraud and money-laundering counts after prosecutors stated he obtained $24 million from at the least 400 buyers via false claims about an AI-powered crypto enterprise.
The Justice Division stated the decision adopted a nine-day trial, with jurors discovering Kovar responsible of 11 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud, and two counts of cash laundering.
The Justice Division positioned the conduct between late 2017 and July 2021, when Kovar marketed Revenue Join as a worthwhile know-how enterprise able to producing the promised returns.
Kovar instructed buyers that Revenue Join used AI software program on a supercomputer to mine crypto and confirm crypto transactions, in keeping with the Justice Division. He represented the corporate as worthwhile, promised fastened returns of 15% to 30% APR and provided a 100% money-back assure.
He additionally claimed Revenue Join held lots of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in crypto reserves. Prosecutors stated the corporate was unprofitable, held no reserves, and lacked a reliable supply for the promised returns or assure.
The Justice Division stated Kovar as a substitute used investor cash to function Revenue Join, purchase presents for workers, buy a home for himself, and repay buyers, with these repayments offered as proceeds from mining and transaction verification.
From civil allegations to a prison verdict
The SEC’s 2021 civil motion alleged that Pleasure and Brent Kovar had raised greater than $12 million from at the least 277 retail buyers since at the least Might 2018 via Revenue Join Wealth Companies. The regulator stated they promoted 20% to 30% annual returns tied to a purported AI supercomputer.
CryptoSlate lined these allegations on the time. The numbers got here from the SEC’s civil case in opposition to Revenue Join and each Kovars, whereas the August 2026 jury verdict individually established Brent Kovar’s prison legal responsibility.
The Justice Division’s $24 million determine is about twice the SEC’s earlier determine of greater than $12 million. The minimal investor rely additionally elevated from at the least 277 within the SEC case to at the least 400 within the prison case, though each figures are lower-bound estimates.
The figures come from totally different instances and canopy totally different durations, so they aren’t instantly comparable. They present that the publicly reported scope of the scheme was bigger by the point of Kovar’s prison conviction, whereas separate court docket or receivership information can be wanted to find out investor losses and recoveries.
The decision now strikes the case to sentencing on Nov. 30, with prosecutors saying the convictions carry an mixture statutory most of 280 years in jail, representing the authorized ceiling throughout the counts. A federal choose will decide Kovar’s sentence after contemplating the US Sentencing Tips and different statutory elements.
