Cryptocurrency company executive sentenced to 4 years in prison for stealing $4.46 million from employer

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement saying that Vanessa Roberts Avery, U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea of ​​Hartford today sentenced Dylan Meissner, a 31-year-old Westport resident, to 48 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for stealing more than $4 million from his former employer. According to court documents and court statements, Meissner was employed by a cryptocurrency research company as the vice president of finance and had access to the company's cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts. In or about January 2022, Meissner obtained a loan of 50 ETH (approximately $170,000) from his employer and stated that he would use the funds to avoid significant losses on certain cryptocurrency investments he had made with personal funds. Meissner then continued to fraudulently divert funds from his employer for his own use from February 2022 until he was fired in November 2022 in order to make up for significant personal trading losses and concealed his actions by making false entries in the company's books and records. Through this scheme, Meissner stole approximately $4,461,828 from his employer. The judge ordered Meissner to pay restitution of $4,633,424.99, which includes the stolen funds and the loans he failed to repay. Meissner was released on $100,000 bail and was required to report to jail on February 21.