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Profit Connect owner Brent Kovar convicted in $24M AI crypto fraud case
Prosecutors said Kovar marketed fixed 15% to 30% APR returns and claimed hundreds of millions in crypto reserves, but jurors found the company was unprofitable and held no reserves.
A federal jury convicted Brent C. Kovar, the owner of Profit Connect, on 15 counts of fraud and money laundering tied to an AI-powered crypto scheme that prosecutors said raised $24 million from at least 400 investors. The Department of Justice said the verdict followed a nine-day trial and included 11 wire fraud counts, two mail fraud counts, and two money-laundering counts.
According to the DOJ, Kovar marketed Profit Connect between late 2017 and July 2021 as a profitable technology business that used AI software on a supercomputer to mine crypto and verify crypto transactions. Prosecutors said he promised fixed returns of 15% to 30% APR, offered a 100% money-back guarantee, and claimed the business held hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto reserves.
Prosecutors argued that the company was unprofitable, had no reserves, and did not have a legitimate source for the promised returns or guarantee. They said investor money was used to run the business, including buying gifts for employees, purchasing a house for Kovar, and repaying investors, with those repayments presented as proceeds from mining and transaction verification.
The DOJ said it previously faced a separate SEC civil action in 2021 that alleged Joy and Brent Kovar raised more than $12 million from at least 277 retail investors through Profit Connect Wealth Services, promoting 20% to 30% annual returns tied to a purported AI supercomputer. CryptoSlate reports the criminal conviction in August 2026 separately established Brent Kovar's liability, and the reported totals cover different periods, making the figures not directly comparable.
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