A former chief financial officer from Mercer Island, Washington, was sentenced to two years in prison for wire fraud after taking and misusing $35 million from his former employer, a private software company. Nevin Shetty, 42, was convicted on November 7, 2025, following a nine-day jury trial.
At the sentencing in U.S. District Court in Seattle, Judge Tana Lin addressed Shetty about the impact of his actions: “The loss had significant and severe effects on the company. Your actions threw into complete turmoil the lives of those 60 people (who were laid off) …. You almost put the company out of business…. You were playing with money that wasn’t yours.”
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd commented on Shetty’s conduct: “Mr. Shetty brazenly schemed to line his own pockets with his employer’s money. Through years of pretrial litigation and then at trial, he steadfastly deflected blame and even went so far as to claim that his fraud was somehow meant to help his former company. His lies did not fool the jury.”
Shetty joined the software firm as CFO in March 2021 while it was raising capital through multiple funding rounds. He participated in drafting an investment policy that restricted company funds to conservative investments such as money market accounts. Despite this policy, he transferred approximately $35 million to a cryptocurrency platform he controlled called HighTower Treasury.
HighTower Treasury, which Shetty created in early 2022 and operated without outside customers, became the recipient of these funds between April 1 and April 12, 2022. The transfers were conducted via wire transactions from a Chase bank branch near Shetty’s home without knowledge or approval from other executives or board members.
Shetty invested the money into high-yield decentralized finance (DeFi) lending protocols offering returns of over 20%. The plan involved HighTower paying a fixed amount back to the software company while keeping excess profits for itself—a move that benefited Shetty personally as part-owner. In its first month, HighTower earned about $133,000 for Shetty and his business partner.
However, by May 13, 2022, losses mounted as cryptocurrency values fell sharply; nearly all of the $35 million had been lost. After revealing what had happened to fellow executives, Shetty was fired immediately.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Kopczynski argued for a nine-year sentence: “Shetty’s serious crime deserves stern punishment. This was a calculated scheme motivated by greed and meticulously carried out over many months. Shetty created a web of lies. He lied to people up and down the chain of command at [his employer], people at outside institutions like Stifel and Chase, and to his HighTower business partner…. Adapting to the massive loss from Shetty’s fraud required [his former employer]to lay off 60 people. Those are 60 people whose lives and careers were irrevocably damaged by Shetty’s greed.”
Jonathan Dean from the FBI Seattle field office noted: “In less than one month, Mr. Shetty stole $35 million from his employer that he knew was meant to be kept in conservative investments to help grow the company… Instead, he lost almost all of it through risky cryptocurrency investments. As the company’s CFO, Mr. Shetty was not only part of the investment planning but also had the access and trust to move the money. I commend the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office who worked tirelessly on a difficult case to bring this embezzler to justice.”
In addition to serving prison time, Shetty must pay restitution totaling $35 million and will be under supervised release for three years after completing his sentence. Judge Lin ordered that he cannot serve as an officer or director at any company without prior approval from probation authorities.
The prosecution team included Assistant United States Attorneys Philip Kopczynski and Grace Zoller.
