Rochester Man Sentenced to 51 Months in Fraud Case Involving Bitcoin

Timothy Wadsworth, 35, of Rochester, New York, was sentenced to 51 months in prison after a conviction in fraud schemes with $2,059,893 in actual and intended losses.

U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. imposed the sentence Oct. 23 after Wadsworth was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering. Geraci ordered him to pay $810,965.19 in restitution and forfeit $810,956.19. The forfeiture represented proceeds from wire fraud.

From March 10 to May 15, 2020, Wadsworth used credit-card numbers supplied by co-conspirators to attempt 310 payments through Stripe, totaling $1,673,578. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York said cardholders had not authorized the payments. Of the attempts, 116 initially succeeded, totaling $730,728.22.

Money from successful payments moved from Stripe to accounts Wadsworth held at HSBC and Evolve Federal Credit Union. He transferred some of the funds to his Coinbase account to buy Bitcoin (BTC), then sent Bitcoin to external addresses. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said the transfers often exceeded $10,000.

The broader schemes ran from March 2020 through September 2021. The U.S. Attorney’s Office put combined actual and intended losses across them at $2,059,893, covering more than the card-payment activity.

The case also included nine false Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications. Three resulted in $161,200 paid to Wadsworth’s bank accounts. Two Paycheck Protection Program loans paid $20,833 and $20,416. The schemes also involved about $65,896 in unemployment benefits, a $42,000 wire from a victim in a romance scheme, and $26,000 in losses to six other victims.