Bitcoin Academy Founder Lands in SEC’s Net For Fraud

51-year-old Brian Sewell has been caught in the middle of a Bitcoin fraud and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has levied charges on him for this crime.

SEC-Sewell Enters Settlement Over Bitcoin Fraud

Brian Sewell, who resided in Hurricane, Utah, before relocating to Puerto Rico, is the founder of American Bitcoin Academy as well as a company known as Rockwell Capital Management. He promoted an online cryptocurrency course where he cajoled students into investing in his hedge fund, a firm he planned to launch. Sewell went as far as telling students that he would leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to generate returns.

With the kinds of mouthwatering promises he made to the unsuspecting students, Sewell received approximately $1.2 million from 15 students. However, he did not launch the hedge fund as promised nor did he execute any of the trading strategies he previously talked about. It ended up being a unique case of Bitcoin fraud as Sewell held on to investors’ assets. 

In what looks like an unfortunate situation for the American Bitcoin academy founder, Sewell’s crypto wallet was hacked and the loot was allegedly carted away. Eventually, the entire scenario attracted enforcement actions from the U.S. securities regulator. Both Sewell and his hedge fund Rockwell Fund were charged with fraud.

In the charges, the U.S. SEC announced that Sewell and Rockwell have agreed to a settlement deal without any denial or acceptance of the accusation. The charge before Sewell is the violation of antifraud provisions of the Federal Securities Laws. The defendants have agreed to injunctive relief and Rockwell is set to pay $1,602,089 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest while Sewell paid $223,229 as a civil penalty.

US SEC is Searching Out Crypto Offenders

The action taken by the SEC further underscores the proactive approach of the authorities towards crypto-related crimes. Last year, there were quite several similar Bitcoin fraud cases handled by the regulator. 37-year-old Diana Mae Fernandez was charged with orchestrating a fraudulent investment scheme. 

Similarly, the SEC recently took decisive action against the suspected orchestrators of the $1.7 billion HyperFund cryptocurrency pyramid scheme. The heist involved Xue Lee, also known as Sam Lee, and Brenda Chunga, aka Bitcoin Beautee. 

In line with the combat against bad actors, the SEC has stated that “Whether it’s AI, crypto, DeFi or some other buzzword, the SEC will continue to hold accountable those who claim to use attention-grabbing technologies to attract and defraud investors.”