When more than a dozen retirees entrusted Richard Emile Ayoub with millions in life savings to invest on their behalf, the self-declared strategic thinker used the cash to buy Bitcoin.
The American Sydney resident has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison with a non-parole period of 18 months after 21 investors were defrauded of $3.5 million from January to February 2021.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime.
Judge Robyn Tupman said many of the victims appeared to be older people looking to invest their life savings for their future as she delivered her sentence in Downing Centre District Court on Friday.
The 54-year-old, who was working with a longtime associate Jazz Singh, promised to put investors' money into bonds but instead used it to buy Bitcoin as part of an investment scam.
Ayoub previously told the court he was in a financially desperate situation when he agreed to take up the job with Mr Singh.
Judge Tupman dismissed his reasoning pointing to purchases he made on Gucci products, restaurants, paying off his son's private school fees and US currency exchanges.
"These are the sort of places one would not normally frequent in a state of financial desperation," she said.
"He did not commit these offences out of need, he committed them out of greed."
Victims to the scam ranged from 31 years old to 83 years with some losing up to half a million dollars.
Judge Tupman said the scam where the fraudsters posed as fake finance companies was sophisticated and although Ayoub was not party to the fraud itself, the proceeds of crime he possessed came about from the scam.
"He was not just a mere conduit. He engaged in multiple transactions and the fact he participated in multiple transactions, increases the objective seriousness of this," she said.
Under the deal, investors paid money to his company Radhanite's bank account, believing it would be used to invest in overseas bonds.
Ayoub transferred that sum to his personal bank account, pocketing his five per cent share and purchased Bitcoin for Mr Singh with the remaining 95 per cent.
The arrangement between him and Mr Singh netted Ayoub more than $180,000 over a six-week period.
Ayoub maintained his belief investors were sending money to be invested in cryptocurrency despite some transaction descriptions reading, "three-year bond" or "bond purchase".
The US national was living in a $4500-a-week Finger Wharf home in Sydney's inner-eastern suburb of Woolloomooloo when police raided his home and arrested him in November 2021 following an eight-month investigation.
He was convicted and jailed on similar crimes in the US more than 20 years ago.
Ayoub could be out on parole as early as May 2023.
