Bitcoin Rodney Pleads Guilty to $1.8B HyperFund Fraud, Faces Five Years Maximum

Published by James Harris on June 17, 2026June 17, 2026

Rodney Burton, the Miami promoter known as “Bitcoin Rodney,” pleaded guilty on June 16 to conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business for his role in the HyperFund fraud, a scheme prosecutors say collected $1.8 billion from investors worldwide. He admitted to running shell consulting firms that functioned as unregistered money transmitters to launder investor funds, personally taking at least $7.85 million in the process.

HyperFund’s mechanics were straightforward and familiar: promise daily returns of 0.5% to 1% backed by supposed mining revenue, collect membership fees, block withdrawals when the inflows slow, and disappear. The mining operations never existed. The scheme ran from June 2020 through early 2022, with withdrawal restrictions appearing in 2021, the same pattern seen in dozens of yield-bearing crypto frauds that proliferated during the low-rate, high-liquidity environment of that period. Burton was arrested in January 2024 at Miami International Airport carrying a one-way ticket to the UAE, a detail that explains why a federal judge denied bail and called him an “extreme flight risk.” The case expanded significantly by December 2025, when a grand jury returned a superseding indictment on 11 counts including wire fraud and money laundering, alleging he spent investor money on luxury condos, sports cars, and a yacht.

The guilty plea covers only the conspiracy count, which carries a five-year maximum, a fraction of what the wire fraud and money laundering charges would have exposed him to.

Sentencing is set for July 23 before U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett, and the gap between that five-year ceiling and the original indictment’s scope will draw attention from prosecutors and defense attorneys in similar cases. HyperFund’s alleged co-founder Sam Lee remains at large, which limits how complete any narrative of accountability can be. Fellow promoter Brenda Chunga, who went by “Bitcoin Beautee,” already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, and the SEC filed separate civil charges against both Lee and Chunga. The money laundering infrastructure used in these schemes, shell firms layered between investor funds and promoter payouts, keeps appearing across jurisdictions and enforcement actions, which is partly why bipartisan House legislation introduced this month would create a Federal Cryptocurrency Theft Task Force spanning the DOJ, FBI, DHS, and Treasury.

The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded more than $11 billion in cryptocurrency losses from over 181,000 complaints, a 21% increase year over year. Burton’s case closes one chapter of HyperFund, but with Lee still outside U.S. jurisdiction, the central fraud allegation remains unresolved in any criminal court.