A Connecticut man appearing before US Magistrate Judge Thomas O. Farris has pleaded not guilty to defrauding investors out of $1m via a cryptocurrency fraud scheme designed to bankroll his online gambling.
Judge Farris heard the plea from Elmin Redzepagic, 24, on Thursday after the Wolcott man was charged in January on a 21-count indictment including wire fraud and money laundering. The US Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut (USAO-CT) took to X with news of Redzepagic’s plea:
Last month a federal grand jury returned an indictment on Redzepagic for 11 counts of international money laundering, seven counts of wire fraud, and three counts of providing false statements to IRS criminal investigation agents.
According to a USAO-CT press release, Redzepagic’s alleged scheme, in which he presented himself to investors as a high-returns-earning crypto investor, ran from May 2021 to March 2025.
had to pay additional fees,” or “gas fees”
The DOJ stated once victims had invested with him, Redzepagic told them he had secured a “substantial profit but had to pay additional fees,” or “gas fees,” to access the money.
As part of his ruse, Redzepagic claimed he worked on a team answerable to a boss who controled the purse strings. Ultimately, instead of investing his victims’ money into crypto, Redzepagic wired the funds to offshore gambling site Stake.com.
The DOJ stated Redzepagic used the Stake platform “to receive and hold proceeds of the scheme, to generate cryptocurrency addresses for victims to use to transfer Bitcoin to him.”
Redzepagic caused a net loss to several victims of approximately $950,000. Released on Thursday on a $500,000 bond, if he’s later convicted of the charges brought against him, Redzepagic potentially faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
