Bitcoin Rodney pleads guilty in $1.8B HyperFund fraud

Rodney Burton, known online as Bitcoin Rodney, pleaded guilty in federal court to a conspiracy charge connected to HyperFund. Burton, 56, faces up to five years in prison; his sentencing is scheduled for July 23 before U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett.

According to court documents, Burton admitted he conspired to provide unlicensed money-transmitting services to promote HyperFund between June 2020 and January 2022. Prosecutors say he controlled multiple companies presented as consulting firms that operated as unauthorized money-transmission businesses and that he personally received at least $7.85 million, including funds traced to HyperFund investors in Maryland.

HyperFund marketed memberships that promised daily returns of 0.5% to 1%, purportedly funded in part by cryptocurrency mining. Investigators found the mining operations did not exist and described the enterprise as a global wire-fraud operation that collected roughly $1.8 billion from investors worldwide. The Justice Department characterized HyperFund as “a global wire-fraud scheme that obtained $1.8 billion from victim-investors worldwide.”

Burton’s guilty plea comes after earlier charges against three HyperFund operators, including co-founder Sam Lee. The conspiracy count carries a maximum penalty of five years under federal law; the judge will set Burton’s sentence at the July hearing.