A federal jury convicted Block Bits Capital co-founder Japheth Dillman of four wire fraud counts and one conspiracy count after a 10-day trial before U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg in the Northern District of California. Dillman and co-founder David Mata raised about $960,000 from more than 20 investors between June 2017 and August 2018 by promoting a proprietary automated cryptocurrency trading program known as the Autotrader, which was supposed to generate returns through cross-exchange arbitrage. Trial evidence and a related SEC civil complaint showed the bot was never completed, tested, or deployed, and fund assets were traded manually instead. Investor money was diverted to personal payments, high-risk loans, speculative crypto ventures and the AML Bitcoin initial coin offering, producing substantial losses estimated at roughly $508,000 in earlier filings and described by prosecutors as nearly $1 million overall. Mata pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count in June 2022, testified against Dillman and later settled SEC charges. Dillman, 48, remains free on bond and is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 8, facing up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each count. The case fits a wider federal crackdown on crypto investment fraud, including other charged schemes and large-scale asset seizures.