Former Geek Group Leader Chris Boden Was Sentenced to Prison for a Crypto Scam

Although cryptocurrency is still going strong, there are also no shortage of stories about people who were involved in one kind of scam or another related to the digital currency.

Sam Bankman-Fried's story is likely the most well-known, but Chris Boden, the founder of the National Science Institute (formerly The Geek Group), was another prominent person who wound up getting prison time for his role in a crypto scam.

The nonprofit founder was arrested in 2018 and sentenced a few years later. Here's what we know about why he ultimately served prison time.

Boden was sent to prison for operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business. Through his work at The Geek Group, he would sell Bitcoin and encouraged others in the group to sell it as well.

After being arrested, he entered into a plea agreement and agreed to serve 30 months of jail time and three years of supervised parole, according to MLive.com. He was also ordered to pay $75,000 and forfeit Bitcoin.

According to authorities, The Geek Group illegally bought and sold cryptocurrency without being licensed with the U.S. Department of Treasury as a money services or transmitting business.

Daniel Reynold DeJager, another leader of the organization, explained in court that he was drawn to the possibility of buying and selling cryptocurrency because of the "possibility of making a lot of money while deposing government-controlled currency with one that was anonymous.”

According to WZZM13, the group sold cryptocurrency to drug dealers, and people were purchasing their cryptocurrency because it was "clean," meaning that it couldn't be traced. Both DeJager and Boden admitted to taking proactive steps to make sure that they weren't caught by anti-money laundering controls, which seems to suggest that they were aware that what they were doing was illegal.

“These defendants knew they were breaking the law and ran their illegal money transmitting business anyway,” said U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge. “In addition to laundering money for their customers, some of whom were involved in drug trafficking, they set about to defeat the anti-money-laundering controls of licensed financial institutions. My hope is the Court’s sentences will deter others who think cryptocurrency operates in a lawless environment from committing similar financial crimes.”

The Geek Group was raided by the IRS and Homeland Security Investigations in 2018, and prosecutors allege that $740,000 was sold through the group between March 2017 and December 2018.

The group itself shut down shortly after the initial raid in 2018, but authorities continue to prosecute the leaders for what they had done while in charge of the group.

Boden's 30 months in prison were due to his cooperation following the investigation, so he received a lighter sentence than he might have otherwise.

Cryptocurrency has been a powerful tool in the rise of some people's personal fortunes, but it's also given opportunities for some bad actors to manipulate a new technology.