Kristijan Krstic has pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud.

Krstic’s plea agreement was filed in Texas on April 1st. As per the filing, Krstic is facing up to twenty years on both counts and fines of up to $5.25 million.

Krstic (right) ran an international Ponzi crime syndicate.

MLM crypto Ponzis ran by the syndicate included Hedger Tech, Start Options and Dragon Mining Tech (made up of Crypto Mining Space, Palilula Mining, BTC Trader Online, BTC Mining Factory and Coin Pool Mining).

Following his indictment under seal in 2020, Krstic was arrested in Serbia in 2021.

Following botched extradition proceedings, Krstic fled Serbia with wife Ksenija around August 2021.

Krstic was arrested in Georgia (the country) in February 2023. After Krstic’s arrest, his wife was reportedly found dead in Istanbul a few months later in August.

Krstic was finally extradited to the US in October 2023.

Pending court approval, the DOJ and Krstic have agreed to seek a prison term of 120 months (10 years).

On the forfeiture side of things the DOJ filed a “stipulation for interlocutory sale” on April 1st.

The stipulation details various retail-estate interests:

  • a four-room apartment in Belgrade, Serbia;
  • two family residential buildings in Nis, Serbia;
  • a three-room apartment in Nis, Serbia;
  • six separate office spaces in Nis, Serbia;
  • a two-story “urban asset compound” in Luz, Portugal; and
  • four adjacent two story houses in Glyka Nera, Greece

As part of his plea deal, Krstic has admitted to US authorities that he purchased the real-estate with “proceeds traceable to the scheme to defraud”.

Under the terms of forfeiture, Krstic is required to sell the properties. Net proceeds will be turned over to the United States Marshals Service as forfeited proceeds.

Other seized items subject to forfeiture include various his and hers luxury watches, a Ferrari, a Mercedes-Benz S350, 17.011 bitcoin, 2.19 million in tether and smaller amounts in various cryptocurrencies.

Again pending court approval, restitution has been mutually agreed to at $68.5 million.

Pending conclusion of his sentence Krstic, believed to hold dual Serbian-Australian nationality, will be deported from the US.

I’ll leave an update below pending a response from the court on Krstic’s plea agreement and the DOJ’s forfeiture stipulation.