A federal jury convicted Profit Connect owner Brent C. Kovar on 15 counts—11 of wire fraud, two of mail fraud and two of money laundering—after a nine-day trial over false claims about an AI-powered crypto business that prosecutors said raised $24 million from at least 400 investors from late 2017 through July 2021. Kovar marketed supercomputer software that supposedly mined crypto and verified transactions, promising 15% to 30% APR, a 100% money-back guarantee, FDIC protection and hundreds of millions in crypto reserves; prosecutors said the firm was unprofitable, held no reserves and spent investor money on operations, employee gifts, a house for Kovar and repayments presented as mining proceeds. An SEC civil case had alleged more than $12 million from at least 277 investors since May 2018 with 20% to 30% return pitches; the Justice Department’s larger figures come from a different case and period and are not directly comparable, though they show a wider publicly reported scope by conviction. The SEC shut the firm in July 2021, finding over 90% of income came from investors and none was used to trade crypto, and tracing about $1.2 million to Joy Kovar’s account and $1.7 million via cash, cards and a car. Kovar, previously sued by the SEC in 2009 over a $12 million Skyway Global pump-and-dump, faces sentencing on Nov. 30 and an aggregate statutory maximum of 280 years amid FBI-reported crypto investment-fraud losses of $11.37 billion in 2025.