Oklahoma Man Gets Five-Year Sentence for $9.4M Crypto Ponzi Scheme

Federal prosecutors have secured a five-year prison term for an Oklahoma resident who admitted to running a fraudulent crypto investment scheme that operated for eight months before collapsing.

Travis Ford, 36, was sentenced on Thursday to 60 months in prison and ordered to pay over $1 million in forfeiture and over $170,000 in restitution, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice published Friday.

Ford will also serve three years of supervised release after his prison term. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in January.

As co-founder and CEO, Ford promoted Wolf Capital as a high-yield trading platform and advertised daily gains “between 1-2% per day, amounting to approximately 547% per year” according to charging documents published by the U.S. Department of Justice late last year.

Wolf Capital “received approximately $9.4 million in investments from approximately 2,800 investors,” the file reads.

Between January 2023 up to about August 2023, Ford “solicited investments through the company website and other social media and internet-based promotion activities,” according to a summary by the DOJ’s criminal division. Ford “held himself out as a sophisticated trader able to deliver high returns” despite knowing “such returns were not possible to achieve consistently,” the statement reads.

Alongside co-conspirators, Ford “made such false promises to induce members of the public to invest money,” prosecutors wrote.

Details of the sentencing on Thursday were first reported by local outlet Tulsa World.

Ford reportedly told investigators Wolf Capital Crypto’s operations had “paid out” between $4 million and $5 million to investors before its collapse, with the remaining funds lost through his own trading activity.

In a written plea agreement referenced in local reporting, Ford acknowledged that he “did not believe those investment returns were possible to achieve consistently.”

Having invested over $100,000, one victim testified that he relied on Ford’s representations and told the court he hoped the judge would impose a harsh punishment. Ford responded saying he took “full responsibility” for the harm and said he was “focused on making it right,” according to the local outlet’s account.

Decrypt has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma to request the final judgment and confirm the sentencing details.

In a statement issued to local press, Ford’s representative explained their client “got involved with a European Block gangster known as 0x” through the internet, later wading “knee-deep in this mess.”

It’s worth noting that “0x” is a common prefix in crypto communities, often used for online handles or shorthand to denote affinity within crypto circles. The prefix appears in Ethereum addresses, smart contract identifiers, and other hex-encoded data drawn from cryptography.

Decrypt has reached out to Ford’s legal representative for comment, as well as for details regarding the individual or group they were referring to as 0x.