Benaiah Holdings: Kinnetz Suit, FBI/IRS Raids, and Receivership

The Benaiah Holdings lawsuit is a federal fraud case filed in July 2025 by Iowa investor Timothy Kinnetz against Sioux Falls crypto hedge fund Benaiah Holdings, Inc. and its founder Benjamin Paul Wiener. It triggered a court-ordered receivership after a federal judge found evidence of “potential fraud,” and it runs alongside an active FBI and IRS criminal investigation. The receiver reported that only $888 remained in Benaiah’s accounts of an estimated $25.1 million taken in from investors.¹

Who Benaiah Holdings Was

Benaiah Holdings, Inc. was incorporated in South Dakota on October 12, 2018, first as an insurance venture and later pivoting to cryptocurrency wealth management.¹ Benaiah Capital, LLC, formed in March 2021, acted as the general partner and advisory arm for two Delaware limited partnerships, Benaiah Digital, LP and Benaiah Digital Fixed Income, LP. The group marketed itself as a boutique fund focused on digital assets, blockchain, and Web3.²

Wiener was CEO. Joshua Dewitt held the title of Chief Investment Officer while also running a separate Sioux Falls crypto startup called CoinLion, and Christopher Charles Hmielewski served as Chief of Staff and head of investor relations. According to the Kinnetz complaint, neither Hmielewski nor Dewitt had meaningful experience in cryptocurrency or hedge-fund management when they were hired. Wiener was also connected to more than a dozen additional LLCs sharing the same Sioux Falls office address, and the complaint alleged that money and expenses were routinely shuffled among them.²

What the Kinnetz Complaint Alleges

Timothy Kinnetz, acting as trustee of his revocable trust, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota on July 18, 2025, seeking to recover $4 million he says was lost through fraud.²

The complaint tells this story. In the fall of 2021, Kinnetz decided to diversify into digital assets. He was introduced to Wiener by his own attorney and told Wiener he had no experience in crypto and needed expert guidance. In December 2021, the trust invested $4 million: $1 million into Benaiah Digital’s fund and $3 million into a Kraken exchange account managed by Benaiah Capital. Kinnetz expressly prohibited risky strategies such as lending, staking, or margin trading.²

After the trust performed tax-loss harvesting in 2022, Wiener said he reinvested the funds in February 2023. The complaint alleges no reinvestment ever happened. In November 2023, Wiener gave Kinnetz access to a “Koinly” software account presented as a real-time tracker of the Kraken holdings; according to the suit, it was populated with manually imported, outdated data designed to hide that the money was gone.²

The story broke apart in early 2025. On February 11, the fund’s outside administrator, NAV Consulting, told Kinnetz it had cut ties with Benaiah Digital and revoked his portal access. When Kinnetz logged directly into the Kraken account on March 15, 2025, the balance was $599.30. Virtually all of the original $3 million was gone.²

The complaint pleads four causes of action: common law fraud, fraudulent conveyances under South Dakota law, conversion, and breach of fiduciary duty. It asks for appointment of a receiver, damages, and injunctive relief to stop further dissipation of assets.²

The Lawyer on Both Sides

On the same day Kinnetz discovered the near-empty Kraken account, his own attorney recused. The lawyer disclosed that he had simultaneously been serving as general counsel for Wiener and the Benaiah entities while advising the Kinnetz family, and it was that same attorney who had introduced Kinnetz to Wiener and recommended the investment. The complaint does not name him, and no disciplinary consequences have been publicly reported.²³

FBI and IRS Raids

On June 26, 2025, the FBI and the IRS criminal division raided Benaiah’s offices on North Krohn Place in Sioux Falls and Wiener’s personal residence. The raids collapsed the fund in the final days of that month.² The Dakota Scout reported that the probe is a multi-state criminal investigation led by the FBI with IRS participation, focused on the alleged cryptocurrency fraud.⁴ As of mid-2026, no criminal charges have been filed against Wiener or anyone else, and the investigation is ongoing.¹

The Receivership and Where the Money Went

On August 15, 2025, U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler granted the receivership Kinnetz had requested and ordered Benaiah’s assets frozen. The judge found that the plaintiff had shown evidence of “potential fraud,” that there was an “imminent danger of further dissipation of assets,” and that Wiener had “engaged in deceptive and misleading statements.”⁴

The receiver’s accounting is stark. Of roughly $25.1 million in investor cash received by Benaiah and its affiliates, about $12 million was paid back to investors, a pattern the receiver characterized as consistent with a Ponzi scheme. Around $5.7 million was transferred to Wiener’s personal bank account. Approximately $6.5 million is unaccounted for. Only $888 remained in Benaiah’s own accounts.¹ The complaint separately alleges Benaiah loaned more than $7 million (money borrowed from creditors) to a third party, Reliz Technologies LLC doing business as BlockFills, which defaulted.²

Wiener has claimed $6 million in digital assets sit in “cold storage.” The receiver noted that the keys were reportedly seized by federal agents during the June 2025 raids, leaving access uncertain.¹

In December 2025, Judge Theeler expanded the receivership to cover more than a dozen entities connected to Wiener, freezing assets across the entire network. Between June and September 2025, $11.1 million in civil judgments were entered against Benaiah and its related companies.¹

Other Investor Suits

Kinnetz was not the only claimant. Additional lawsuits identified in the complaint push total creditor claims past $10 million:

Dynamic Alpha, LLC v. Wiener (Lincoln County, SD), filed April 1, 2025, alleging Wiener owes $60,000 plus interest from a September 2022 deal in which Dynamic Alpha transferred eleven Class A membership shares in Benaiah Capital to him for an agreed $250,000.⁵
McKinzie v. Wiener (Hennepin County, MN), in which Keith, Kyle, and Kris McKinzie seek the return of $2 million transferred to Wiener personally in May 2025 on promises the money would purchase interests in Runway Four10, LLC and fund a loan.⁶
Syverson et al. v. Wiener et al. and Taunton Ventures, LLC v. Benaiah Capital, LLC et al., both filed in Minnehaha County, SD.²

In a February 2026 ruling, Judge Theeler let the McKinzies and Dynamic Alpha pursue judgments in their separate state actions but barred them from collecting on those judgments without first obtaining permission from the federal court overseeing the receivership.⁷

Where the Case Stands

The federal case remains active. Wiener’s attorney withdrew in March 2026, and Wiener filed a series of motions on his own behalf seeking a neutral examiner, attorney fees and living expenses, and an asset inventory and accounting. On March 11, 2026, Judge Theeler denied his motion to reconsider a compel order but temporarily stayed eviction proceedings and asset liquidations pending a hearing on his other motions.⁸ By June 2026, the court had appointed new counsel for Wiener to address a pending contempt motion, an evidentiary hearing was held on June 3, 2026, and a further motion hearing was scheduled for August 12, 2026.⁹ The FBI and IRS criminal investigation continues without public charges against any individual.

1
KBHB Radio. Fraud Investigation Into South Dakota-Based Hedge Fund
2
ALM Media. Kinnetz v. Benaiah Holdings Complaint
3
Law.com. Florida Financier Pushes Receivership After Crypto Fund Implodes, Lawyer Tied to Both Sides
4
The Dakota Scout. FBI, IRS Probing Sioux Falls Hedge Fund
5
CaseMine. Kinnetz v. Benaiah Holdings – Dynamic Alpha Intervention Ruling
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CaseMine. Kinnetz v. Benaiah Holdings – McKinzie Intervention Ruling
7
CaseMine. Kinnetz v. Benaiah Holdings – Intervention Ruling
8
Justia. Kinnetz v. Benaiah Holdings – Order on Pro Se Motions
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PACER Monitor. Kinnetz v. Benaiah Holdings, Inc. et al – Docket