A woman conned victims out of thousands of pounds before spending almost £250,000 on jewellery, travel, home improvements, vehicles and takeaway food.
Nottinghamshire Police said Faisa Ali took money from a large number of investors for her cryptocurrency company, from 2021 to 2023, and made guarantees their cash could not be lost.
However, she sent a text message to the investor WhatsApp group in March 2023, which stated she had made poor decisions and lost all their money.
The 34-year-old, of Palin Street in Radford, Nottingham, was given a three-year prison sentence – suspended for three years – at Nottingham Crown Court on Monday and was ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work.
The force said it opened an investigation after angry investors turned up at Ali’s home and she called the police.
Officers said 23 victims, nearly all from Somali communities across the UK, including Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham and London, provided witness statements and one person had lost more than £40,000.
Detectives established Ali had been fully aware the value of almost all cryptocurrencies had fallen dramatically and consistently over the 18-month period she operated the scheme, but had continued to use money from new investors to fund a “luxury lifestyle”.