Reggie Fowler, a former owner of NFL team Minnesota Vikings, has been meted a six-year prison sentence by a New York judge because of his involvement in a crypto fraud scheme. This scheme encompassed more than $700 million in unregulated transactions carried out over a period of 10 months in 2018. 

The 63-year-old Vikings co-owner was convicted on charges of bank fraud and money laundering. The United States Attorney’s Office in New York released a statement on June 5, revealing that Fowler was sentenced to a total of 75 months. 

US Attorney Damian Williams explained that Fowler’s sentence was a result of his engagement in processing hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated transactions for cryptocurrency exchanges, acting as an illicit banking entity that evaded federal regulations.

Former co-owner of Minnesota Vikings sentenced to 75 months in prison for providing shadow banking services to cryptocurrency exchangeshttps://t.co/Nc2PVhEajw

— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) June 5, 2023

Fowler’s sentencing brings an end to a lengthy case that commenced with his arrest in 2019 for his alleged involvement in shadow banking activities. Shadow banking refers to non-bank entities engaging in bank-like operations, often of an illicit nature.

The particular shadow banking entity involved in this case was Crypto Capital Corp, which was established with the purpose of facilitating transactions for cryptocurrency startups that operated outside of the traditional banking system either by choice or necessity.

Initially, Fowler entered a plea of not guilty to all charges in 2020. However, in April 2022, he changed his plea to guilty. In his recent statement, Williams highlighted that a series of falsehoods allowed Fowler to deceive and mislead several banks.

According to Williams, Fowler successfully executed his criminal activities by establishing Global Trading Solutions (GTS) in February 2018. GTS collaborated with Crypto Capital and various other cryptocurrency firms based in Israel.

Within this arrangement, Fowler, GTS, and the crypto firms employed deceitful tactics to bypass licensing requirements. They deceived banks by providing false information, allowing them to open accounts used for processing cryptocurrency transactions.

Williams said:

“At no point were Fowler, GTS, nor any of the crypto companies ever licensed as a money transmitting business in the United States, as required by federal law.”

Fowler took advantage of this setup by opening multiple undisclosed accounts, effectively facilitating the crypto transactions without the banks’ knowledge. Additionally, he failed to disclose GTS’s affiliation with the crypto firms, further obscuring the true nature of the operations.

In addition to the prison sentence imposed on Fowler, he has been ordered to forfeit a staggering $740 million.

-Featured image from XFL Newsroom

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