Payza’s Firoz Patel has been sentenced to 41 months in prison for obstruction (~3 years and 5 months).

Patel pled guilty to obstruction in September 2024. The charges were in relation to Patel stashing 450 bitcoin prior to beginning his Payza prison sentence.

Patel pled guilty to Payza money laundering charges in 2020. He was sentenced to 52 months in prison on those charges in November 2020.

Had he of not thought he was pulling a fast one in stashing the undeclared bitcoin, Patel would have been released to freedom last year.

Patel’s brother and partner in crime, Ferhan Patel, served his sentence and was released in July 2022.

In addition to serving another forty-one months in prison, Firoz Patel is also subject to a February 3rd preliminary forfeiture order.

The order authorizes forfeiture of Patel’s 450 bitcoin (worth $43.8 million at time of publication), seized by the DOJ back in 2022.