The U.S. District Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut recently announced that Missouri resident Lyell Champagne Jr. has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for fraud and tax crimes involving cryptocurrencies. The case was investigated by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). According to court documents, the Justice Department explained that between March 2021 and April 2022, the man, along with co-conspirator Kristian Gupta, attempted to steal money from the victim's bank account by obtaining online credentials and transferring the funds to a cryptocurrency account under their control. The duo also tried to woo bank insiders, but an undercover investigation thwarted their plot. In addition to this fraud, Champagne also filed false tax returns for a non-existent company, ShireberkInternational, between 2018 and 2021 and received a refund of $34,449,935. Champagne pleaded guilty on June 11 to bank fraud and false claims. His accomplice, Gupta, pleaded guilty in April and will be sentenced on September 19.