California Jury Convicts Crypto Fund Scammer Japheth Dillman

A California federal jury has convicted Japheth Dillman of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud for his role in operating Block Bits Fund I, LP, a crypto trading fund that raised nearly $1 million from over 20 investors. The central lie was a proprietary autotrading bot that could exploit price differences across digital asset exchanges.

The bot never actually worked. Instead of deploying investor capital into the promised algorithmic strategy, Dillman and his co-founder David Mata funneled the money into high-risk ventures that investors never signed up for. These included making loans and pouring funds into the AML Bitcoin initial coin offering.

Of the approximately $960,000 raised, investors suffered losses estimated at around 53% or $508,000.