When the 19-year-old Canadian was pulled over in a speeding Rolls-Royce in Miami in March, the smell of cannabis billowing out and the amphetamines in his bag were the least of his worries.
For two years, court documents show, Trenton Johnston had built a lavish lifestyle through cryptocurrency fraud. Thirteen million dollars in stolen funds financed club outings, jewelry, flashy cars and at least one trip on a private jet.
Mr. Johnston, evading the U.S. immigration authorities in Florida after he overstayed a visa, the court documents say, posed as a representative for Google and cryptocurrency companies to gain access to prospective victims’ accounts. Then a small cadre of friends and co-conspirators helped him hide his ill-gotten gains, with some of them running schemes of their own.
On Tuesday, Mr. Johnston, who is now 20, pleaded guilty in Federal District Court in Miami to a single count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in a case that illustrates the low-hanging opportunities that novel financial technologies offer to scammers.
His story may border on the outlandish, but it is not unique. In California, a group of young fraudsters accused of stealing over $200 million worth of Bitcoin from an investor in Washington, D.C., in 2024 used a similar method.
The following year, the F.B.I. tracked over $11 billion in losses to cryptocurrency theft, a 20 percent increase from the previous year — and those figures reflect only the victims who filed complaints with the agency.
According to an affidavit filed by a Homeland Security Investigations officer, Mr. Johnston crossed into Buffalo from Canada in October 2024 on a yearlong visa. He was not authorized to work in the United States.
A Miami car dealer named Brandon Tardibone helped Mr. Johnston launder stolen funds, which the Canadian used to buy luxury vehicles — a Lamborghini, two BMWs — short-term rentals, jewelry and more, court documents show.
The documents detail a March conversation on Signal, the private messaging app, between Mr. Johnston and a co-conspirator, whose identity was unclear.
Mr. Johnston sounded elated. He had just tricked a California resident into exposing 185 Bitcoin — worth about $13 million.
“Such a whale number,” the other person declared.
“We actually smacked a 185btc target today,” Mr. Johnston responded. “Like unironically smacked a 185.”
Mr. Tardibone pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering alongside Mr. Johnston.
The deal allowed Mr. Johnston to avoid charges that could have meant up to 40 years in prison. Federal sentencing guidelines now suggest a punishment of around four to five years.
Lawyers for both defendants declined to comment on the record.
It was unclear whether Mr. Johnston will serve his sentence in the United States or in Canada, though he agreed to cooperate in his deportation as part of the plea deal. Court documents indicate that he is a first-time offender.
