A federal jury has convicted Las Vegas businessman Brent C. Kovar of fraudulently obtaining $24 million from at least 400 investors through a cryptocurrency investment scheme, federal prosecutors said.

Kovar owned Profit Connect from late 2017 through July 2021. The company claimed to use artificial intelligence software and a supercomputer to mine cryptocurrency and verify transactions. Prosecutors said those claims were false and that the business did not hold the cryptocurrency reserves it advertised.

After a nine-day trial, the jury found Kovar guilty on 11 counts of wire fraud, two counts of mail fraud and two counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 30, 2026.

How Profit Connect attracted investors

Prosecutors said Kovar promised investors fixed annual returns ranging from 15% to 30%, offered a 100% money-back guarantee and claimed the company held hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency reserves.

Authorities said Kovar knew Profit Connect was not profitable and could not deliver those guarantees. Instead, investigators found he used investor funds to operate the company, purchase employee gifts and buy a house.

Incoming investor money was also used to make payments to earlier investors, and those payments were presented as if they came from cryptocurrency mining and transaction verification.

The scheme's technology claims gave the investment operation an appearance of legitimacy, but prosecutors said the promised cryptocurrency infrastructure and reserves did not exist. For investors, that distinction mattered because the business was presented as a technology-backed source of returns rather than a conventional investment program, a structure that can make such offerings harder to scrutinize before losses surface.

Sentencing could bring a lengthy prison term

Kovar faces a statutory maximum of 280 years in prison. That figure represents the maximum penalties allowed across the federal charges and does not mean he will receive a 280-year sentence. A federal judge will determine the actual punishment after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case was investigated by federal criminal investigators from the FBI, the IRS and the FDIC's inspector general. The conviction adds another major enforcement action to a growing body of cryptocurrency fraud cases involving fabricated returns, nonexistent assets and misuse of investor funds, underscoring how regulators and prosecutors continue to focus on claims that combine high promised yields with unverifiable technical language.