Bitwise co-founders and former co-CEOs Jake Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr. started their prison sentences on Tuesday.
The pair were ordered to report to prison on Tuesday around three months after they were sentenced.
The big picture: Last December, Soberal was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison, while Olguin was sentenced to 9 years in their financial fraud case.
- Soberal’s sentence will be served at Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc, a low-security prison that houses non-violent criminals.
- Olguin is imprisoned at Federal Correctional Institution, Victorville, in a minimum security satellite camp that houses female offenders that is adjacent to the main prison.
- They will both have three years of supervised release after they serve their prison sentences.
Flashback: Soberal and Olguin agreed to a plea deal in the $115 million federal fraud case. They pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.
- Along with their prison sentences, they were ordered to pay $115 million in restitution to their victims, although they admitted at their sentencing that they will likely never be able to do so.
- They each had pushed the judge to only sentence them to five years in prison. Federal prosecutors had pushed for 12 years in prison for both of them.
Driving the news: Bitwise, the one-time tech darling of Fresno that was more so a real estate company, collapsed in May 2023, with the entire staff of around 1000 people across several states losing their jobs.
- Soberal and Olguin never actually led Bitwise to make a profit over the decade the company was in business.
- The former co-CEOs effectively ran a Ponzi scheme and misappropriated 401(k) contributions, doctored audit reports and bank statements, forged signatures on bank documents and engaged in rampant nepotism.
