MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – A Memphis woman has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for defrauding state and federal COVID-19 relief programs of more than half a million dollars.
Karen Guevara, 38, is the third Memphis woman to be convicted of these schemes in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee.
Prosecutors say Guevara and her two co-conspirators fraudulently gained more than $560,000 in federal unemployment relief across more than 20 states during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic.
They also obtained around $20,000 from the Tennessee Emergency Cash Assistance program by creating fake termination notices for themselves and others.
On February 13, Guevara was sentenced to one year and a day of incarceration to be followed by three years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and making false claims…
CLICK HERE to read the FULL 3rd Memphis woman sentenced in COVID-19 relief fraud scheme article.
THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025