New Jersey Law Journal Quotes David Castleman on $1.5 Million Bitcoin Scam
April 16, 2025
Otterbourg partner David Castleman has been quoted in the New Jersey Law Journal article “New Jersey Accountant Duped by Fake Lover Faces Client Lawsuit for $1.5M Lost in Bitcoin Scam.”
The article discusses a civil suit brought against Martin Chirico, an accountant and financial advisor, after he lost the money in a crypto “pig butchering” scheme. Chirico is accused of inducing two clients – both relatives – of investing their money with him in a plot facilitated by a fake online lover.
Castleman, a former assistant attorney general in the New York Investor Protection Bureau who also serves as the court-appointed receiver in the $260 million Ponzi scheme involving the trading platform EminiFX, said he expects to see an uptick in these types of cases.
“As more and more accountants, lawyers and professionals become more involved in the ecosystem of cryptocurrency transactions,” Castleman said, “you will start to see more and more suits, statistically speaking, because those folks will be in the transactions when they weren’t before.”