Crypto▼ Bearish
TransLunar Crypto Fund Founder Sentenced to 37 Months for Tax Fraud
Justin Ryan, founder of TransLunar Crypto Fund, was sentenced to 37 months for hiding $7M in income after renouncing his U.S. citizenship. The court also ordered $3.4 million in restitution.
Continue with
Justin Ryan, the founder of TransLunar Crypto Fund, was sentenced Monday to 37 months in federal prison for a tax evasion scheme. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas, handed down the sentence after Ryan pleaded guilty. The court also ordered him to pay $3.4 million in restitution.
The Department of Justice said Ryan concealed more than $7 million in income earned from managing the fund between 2019 and 2022. In his tax returns for 2020, 2021, and 2022, he reported net income of less than $5,000 each year.
Ryan launched TransLunar Crypto LP in 2017 to raise capital for blockchain projects, according to defense documents. Fundraising focused on investors in Austin and Aspen.
In March 2022, Ryan renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to the Cayman Islands. Prosecutors said he submitted a false net worth statement to the IRS during that process. Then, in 2023, he bought a property in Snowmass Village, Colorado, for $5.8 million and sold it three months later for $9 million. The government documented that he submitted altered tax information to avoid capital gains taxes on that sale.