The exact page text, read by your browser's voice.
December 2020 — August 2022; sentenced 2026
Crypto as the exit: The first federal case in the Fort Wayne record in which cryptocurrency does real work is a laundering case. Janis A. Sexton, 63, of Ossian — Wells County, immediately south of Allen — pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering and was sentenced in the Fort Wayne division of the U.S. District Court, by Chief Judge Holly A. Brady, to 60 months in prison and $1,679,934 in restitution. According to the Justice Department, between December 2020 and August 2022 Sexton created four shell companies and opened accounts at multiple banks; the conspiracy's business-email-compromise and government-program schemes deceived businesses and individuals into wiring money to accounts she controlled — more than $4 million attempted, a little over $2 million actually obtained — and after laundering the proceeds through her accounts she sent them to an overseas conspirator, sometimes by converting the money into cryptocurrency. The case was investigated by the FBI with the Stamford, Connecticut, police. Cryptocurrency's role in the Fort Wayne record begins here: not as an investment, but as the last, least traceable hop in moving stolen money out of the country.
Sources:
- U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana, "Ossian Woman Sentenced to 60 Months in Prison" (2026) — the sentence, the restitution, the shell companies, and the conversion of proceeds into cryptocurrency.