THE Ministry of Justice plans to drop charges against a Colorado man accused of running a cryptocurrency fraud that allegedly netted him $722 million in ill-gotten gains.
Matthew Goettsche, along with several others, was indicted in 2019 over allegations that he defrauded investors with his crypto mining company, BitClub Network. It rewarded investors who recruited new members, prosecutors said, which is the classic structure of a Ponzi scheme.
In a sharp reversal, the assistant attorney general’s office in Washington ordered the U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey to dismiss the case with prejudice, two people familiar with the matter said. Bloomberg Law.
The first public sign that the charges were no longer being pursued came Wednesday, when Goettsche’s attorneys filed a motion informing the judge that they had “reached an agreement in principle to resolve the pending charges.”
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Cryptocurrency mining rigs at a facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Monday, December 2, 2024. (Sarah Pabst/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
According to people who spoke with Bloomberg Law, Goettsche has assembled a team of lawyers with ties to the Trump administration who could push for relief from the DOJ.
Fox News Digital has contacted the DOJ for comment.
Emily Covington, a DOJ spokesperson, denied that the decision to drop the charges had anything to do with “alleged pressure from Goettsche’s lawyers,” in a statement to Bloomberg Law.
She also said the DOJ regularly evaluates ongoing cases and that the government is in the process of recovering “a substantial amount owed to investors.”
It’s a stunning change since February, when prosecutors sent the court a letter saying a jury trial was necessary.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Department of Justice, January 30, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Alex Wroblewski/AFP via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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“The indictment concerns a global fraudulent scheme based on false promises that the victims’ hundreds of millions of dollars of investments would be used to generate income through cryptocurrency mining,” prosecutors wrote in the letter, signed by then-Assistant Attorney General Todd Blanche.
In 2015, when BitClub Network was just getting off the ground, Goettsche allegedly told his co-conspirators, “We’re building this whole model on the backs of idiots,” according to the indictment.
Bitcoin mining is a process that requires “miners” to use computers to solve complex mathematical problems in order to be rewarded with newly created Bitcoin.
A Bitcoin logo at a cryptocurrency office in Madrid, Spain, Saturday June 20, 2026. (Andrei Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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BitClub Network, as others did at the time, claimed to pool investors’ money to buy hardware and computer chips to build a better mining system. The idea was to then distribute the profits.
Prosecutors argued that BitClub Network reported false profits and misled its investors.
“Real stats over fake numbers,” Goettsche said in a message to a colleague in January 2015 that was included in the indictment. “We will gradually introduce real figures.”
On July 18, 2025, President Donald Trump introduced the GENIUS Act (Guiding and Speaking National Innovation for US Stablecoins Act), which codifies the use of stablecoins – cryptocurrencies tied to stable assets like the US dollar. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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The indictment, which charged Goettsche with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and sell unregistered securities, was handed down during the first Trump administration, and three of Goettsche’s co-defendants pleaded guilty.
The second Trump administration has been much more crypto-friendly, with Donald Trump’s family having their own crypto businesses. The House of Representatives also passed the Clarity Act last year, Congress’ first attempt to provide an updated framework for regulating crypto.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Goettsche’s defense attorneys for comment.
