Ex-Rugby Star Slammed with 30 Months for $900K Crypto Mining Scam

Shane Donovan Moore's Deceptive Play

Boom! The U.S. Department of Justice just dropped the hammer on Shane Donovan Moore, a 37-year-old ex-semi-pro rugby player from Seattle, sentencing him to a hefty 30 months in the slammer for swindling investors out of a cool $900,000 in a slick crypto mining Ponzi scheme.

From January 2021 to October 2022, Moore was running the show at Quantum Donovan LLC, spinning a web of lies according to a July 17 DOJ statement.

Using his rugby connections like a pro, Moore built trust and reeled in victims from Washington, Utah, Oregon, Connecticut, and New Jersey, exploiting the very community that once cheered him on.

Moore promised his investors their cash would fuel a crypto mining empire, dangling daily returns of 1% and painting a picture of endless profits from mining rigs. But it was all smoke and mirrors.

The reality? Moore never even touched a mining rig. He funneled the money straight into his personal accounts, living large on his victims' dime. We're talking luxury apartments, high-end electronics, designer threads, fancy luggage, and jet-setting travels.

Classic Ponzi move: Moore used some of the loot to buy crypto and pay off early birds, keeping the illusion alive just long enough to hook more suckers.

Over 40 people got duped by Moore's con, many of them friends, teammates, and folks who trusted him because of his rep in the rugby world. Total damage? A gut-punching $387,000 in losses, according to court docs.

U.S. District Judge Tana Lin wasn't messing around, ordering Moore to do time and cough up restitution, though the exact payback plan remains under wraps.

Moore's scam might have cost nearly $900,000, but he's not the only one playing this dirty game on a grander scale.

Just last month, the DOJ threw the book at Dwayne Golden, locking him up for 97 months after he ran a $40 million Ponzi scheme under the guise of a crypto investment platform.

Golden and his crew were running fake platforms like EmpowerCoin, ECoinPlus, and Jet-Coin from 2017 to 2018, promising sky-high returns from overseas crypto trading. Spoiler alert: it was all a sham to pay off existing investors and line their own pockets.

Golden even tried to throw a wrench in the federal investigation by lying and destroying evidence, but he ended up having to forfeit $2.46 million, with more restitution on the way.

As crypto goes mainstream and the cash keeps flowing, it's become a hotbed for fraud. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center says over 50% of all reported crypto losses in 2024 were thanks to investment scams. Watch your back, folks!