Las Vegas businessman convicted in $24 million crypto Ponzi scheme

Brent Kovar, a Las Vegas business owner, was convicted of operating a $24 million Ponzi scheme that defrauded at least 400 retail investors through a fraudulent cryptocurrency mining operation, according to CoinDesk.

Kovar told investors their money would fund a supercomputer mining cryptocurrency on their behalf, generating returns with minimal risk. According to Decrypt, he also falsely assured victims that their funds were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a claim with no legal basis for crypto assets.

The scheme operated by collecting investor capital under these false premises and using incoming funds to pay earlier investors, the hallmark of a Ponzi structure. CoinDesk reports Kovar faces up to 280 years in prison following the conviction.

The case exemplifies a category of retail fraud in crypto markets: schemes that layer false claims about insured returns, automated systems, and institutional safeguards to attract non-professional investors. Decrypt's reporting notes the supercomputer framing, which blended AI terminology with mining claims to create an impression of technological legitimacy.