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A 54-year-old Utah man was sentenced to three years in federal prison for operating an unlicensed cash-to-crypto business and defrauding investors of nearly $3 million.
Brian Garry Sewell of Washington County was sentenced to 36 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to wire fraud.
The judge also ordered more than $3.8 million in combined restitution, including payments to investors and the Department of Homeland Security.
The sentence will run concurrently with a separate three-year term imposed in another federal case involving an unlicensed money-transmitting business, according to the Justice Department.
The case suggests federal authorities are increasingly willing to pursue smaller, regional crypto operators under the same statutes and sentencing frameworks used for larger platforms and urban hubs.
Federal prosecutors said Sewell “obtained money from at least 17 investors by lying about his experience, education, and ability to generate large returns” between December 2017 and April 2024, according to public documents tracing the case.
“Sewell preyed on his victims by lying about his experience and promising returns he could not deliver, leaving individuals and families to bear the consequences of his deception,” Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls of the Salt Lake City FBI said in a statement.
By bringing parallel fraud and transmission charges in Utah, prosecutors appear to be signaling that geographic scale or informality offers no insulation from enforcement when crypto is used to move or disguise illicit funds.
“It is increasingly common, almost ‘standard practice,’ in cases involving retail-level crypto fraud,” Andrew Rossow, public affairs attorney and CEO of AR Media Consulting, told Decrypt.
The unlicensed money transmitting charge “acts as a fail-safe for prosecutors: it secures a felony conviction based on the illegal operation itself, regardless of whether the jury believes the defendant intended to defraud anyone,” Rossow explained.
“Given Utah is far from Wall Street, the DOJ is demonstrating the breadth of its investigative resources,” he said, adding that the case “demonstrates that the size of financial loss for investors isn't the sole factor for the Justice Department to move forward” and address illicit financial activities head-on.
The federal prosecution against Sewell unfolded over roughly two years, beginning with investigative activity tied to his cash-to-crypto operations in 2020, followed by indictments in 2024.
Accounting for the underlying conduct, the case stretched nearly five years from investigation to resolution.
Court records show Sewell initially pleaded not guilty after indictment, with prosecutors advancing parallel wire fraud and unlicensed money transmitting charges through pretrial proceedings.
Sewell’s fraudulent behavior resulted in more than $2.9 million in victim losses, prosecutors said.
The unlicensed money transmitting conduct cited in Sewell’s sentencing traces back to an earlier federal indictment in Washington County, where IRS prosecutors alleged he and another defendant operated a cash-to-crypto business.
That scheme moved over $5.4 million through Sewell’s Rockwell Capital Management, forming the foundation for charges that later ran alongside his wire fraud case.