Woman who ran prenatal business gets five years for $2.6 million fraud

The former owner of a prenatal care business who stole roughly $2.6 million in federal funds meant to help poor women and their babies in Milwaukee was sentenced to five years in prison.

Lakia Jackson, 36, was also ordered to pay back the $2.6 million.

Chief U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper sentenced Jackson to a term below the federal sentencing guideline range of about eight to nine years, citing Jackson’s decision to plead guilty instead of going to trial.

Prosecutors recommended five years. Jackson’s attorney, Robert LeBell, asked for 2 1/2 years, citing the impact on Jackson’s six children. The mandatory minimum sentence was two years.

“This was an extensive…

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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