A former CFO in the United States has been sentenced to prison after secretly moving millions from his employer into crypto investments.
Nevin Shetty, a 42-year-old man from Mercer Island in Washington, has been sentenced to two years in prison by a federal court in Seattle. He was convicted of four counts of wire fraud after misusing about $35 million belonging to the software company where he worked as chief financial officer.
Source: Geekwire
The sentencing came after a nine-day jury trial that ended on November 7, 2025. During the hearing, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin said Shetty’s actions had serious consequences for the company and its employees.
Judge Lin also told the court that the fraud created major financial problems for the company and led to the layoffs of about 60 workers. She added that the company was nearly pushed out of business because of the missing funds.
How the CFO Laundered The Funds Through Crypto Investments
According to the court records, Shetty joined the private software company in March 2021 as its chief financial officer. At the time, the company was trying to raise funds through several investment rounds in order to support its operations and growth.
The company had created a strict investment policy to protect the money it raised from investors. The policy stated that company funds should only be placed in safe options such as money market accounts or other conservative investments of that nature.
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Despite helping draft and present the policy to the company’s board, Shetty secretly moved about $35 million into a cryptocurrency platform connected to his own side business. The business, called HighTower Treasury, was launched in early 2022 and had no other clients.
In April 2022, shortly after he was told he would no longer continue as the company’s CFO due to concerns about his performance, Shetty transferred the funds out of the company’s account.
Between April 1 and April 12, 2022, he used wire transfers from a Chase bank branch near his home to move $35,000,100 into HighTower Treasury’s account. Prosecutors said no other executives or board members were aware of all the transfers he made.
After moving the funds, Shetty invested the money in DeFi. These platforms offered him high-yield lending opportunities with returns of about 20% and even more.
In the first month, his investments reportedly generated about $133,000 in profit. However, the crypto investments soon began losing value. By May 13, 2022, the funds had almost completely disappeared as the value of the investments dropped to nearly to zero.
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