A former semi-professional rugby player has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after defrauding investors out of nearly $900,000 through a fake cryptocurrency mining scheme.
According to a statement released by the U.S. Department of Justice on July 17, 37-year-old Shane Donovan Moore from Seattle used his reputation within the rugby community to recruit victims across Washington, Utah, Oregon, Connecticut, and New Jersey between January 2021 and October 2022.
A former rugby player just got 30 months in prison for running a $900K crypto Ponzi scheme 😳 He scammed over 40 people…mostly teammates & friends…promising fake mining returns
Be careful who you trust in crypto#CryptoScam #PonziScheme #CryptoNewshttps://t.co/FmanPDtVAn
— CryptoNinja (@CryptoNinjaPro) July 18, 2025
Moore operated under a fraudulent company, Quantum Donovan LLC, promising investors daily returns of 1% from crypto mining activities. Federal prosecutors revealed that he never purchased any mining equipment. Instead, he siphoned funds into personal accounts to finance a lavish lifestyle, including luxury apartments, designer clothing, electronics, and frequent travel.
To maintain the scheme, Moore sent small payouts to early investors using funds from newer victims, in typical Ponzi fashion. Court documents show that over 40 individuals were defrauded, many of them his teammates, friends, and acquaintances who trusted him based on his rugby career. While total investments reached nearly $900,000, losses to victims exceeded $387,000.
U.S. District Judge Tana Lin handed down the 30-month prison sentence and ordered restitution, though details on repayment were not disclosed.
Moore’s case is the latest in a string of crypto-related frauds prosecuted by U.S. authorities. Last month, the DOJ sentenced Dwayne Golden to more than eight years for orchestrating a $40 million Ponzi scheme disguised as a crypto investment platform. Golden’s ventures, including EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin, promised high returns from overseas crypto trading but used deposits to pay off earlier investors while he and his partners enriched themselves.
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Centre reports that investment scams accounted for over half of all crypto-related losses in 2024, underscoring the sector’s ongoing vulnerability to fraud.
Meanwhile, A British court sentenced two men from Greater London to prison for running a fraudulent cryptocurrency investment scheme that stole over £1.54 million (about $2.1 million) from at least 65 victims between 2017 and 2019.
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