Shane Hvizdzak: Guilty Plea, Bond Revocation, and Prison Time

Shane Hvizdzak is a Bradford, Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty in October 2025 to 49 federal counts of wire fraud and money laundering tied to a $31 million cryptocurrency investment scheme. He is now in federal custody awaiting sentencing after a judge revoked his bond in May 2026, finding probable cause that he had committed a new fraud while free and waiting to be sentenced for the first one.¹

The $31 Million Crypto Fund

In March 2019, Shane Hvizdzak and his brother Sean set up High Street Capital Fund USA, LP, marketing it as an algorithmic quantitative fund built to profit from cryptocurrency volatility. None of the entities they used were registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.²

The pitch was a lie. The brothers gave prospective investors fabricated financial statements and forged audit reports claiming returns as high as 134% and 100% in 2019, when the fund had actually lost about 24.5% during that period.³ Between July 2019 and May 2020, at least 17 parties wired roughly $31 million into an account controlled by Hvizdzak Capital Management.²

The money did not go where investors thought. According to the SEC, more than 80% of the funds in the account, nearly $26 million, moved into the brothers’ personal accounts. Shane alone moved more than $20 million out of his personal Gemini cryptocurrency account to various blockchain addresses during that same window.² Payments to earlier investors, presented as returns, actually came from newer investors’ deposits, the structure of a Ponzi scheme.⁴

The SEC sued in June 2020 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania and got a temporary restraining order and asset freeze the same day.³ A federal grand jury followed on August 10, 2021, returning a 65-count indictment against both brothers for conspiracy, wire fraud, and money laundering.⁴ The indictment listed property subject to forfeiture including $341,532 in cash, two Rolex watches, digital assets across several wallets, and a Bradford, Pennsylvania property.⁵

The Guilty Plea

Trial was set to open in Pittsburgh in October 2025. On October 15, 2025, the day trial was scheduled to begin, Shane Hvizdzak pleaded guilty in federal court to 49 counts of wire fraud and money laundering.⁶

His defense attorney later said the decision reflected in part that cryptocurrency is unfamiliar to most people, including prospective jurors, and is “often thought to be wrought with fraud and wrongdoing.”⁷

How Much Prison Time He Faces

The parties are far apart on sentencing. Prosecutors have asked the court to set the offense level at 38, which carries a recommended federal guideline range of 20 to 24 years in prison, and they are seeking full restitution for victims.⁸

Shane Hvizdzak’s attorneys have pushed back on multiple enhancements in the pre-sentence investigation report, argued he qualifies as a “zero-point offender,” and put the appropriate range at roughly four to five years.⁸ Earlier reporting put his exposure at roughly 15 years.⁹ Sentencing was originally set for February 18, 2026, then rescheduled to April 9, 2026 over the enhancement dispute.

Bond Revoked Over an Alleged New Fraud

The April sentencing never happened. On May 13, 2026, after a three-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge W. Scott Hardy revoked Shane Hvizdzak’s bond and ordered him into federal custody.¹

Prosecutors said that while free on bond awaiting sentencing, Hvizdzak contacted a woman he had known for 35 years through encrypted messaging apps, pushed her to share business financial information, and asked her to open cryptocurrency accounts under his control. He told her he was making “almost $1.5 million a day” trading cryptocurrency and sent her a screenshot purporting to show a $60 investment of hers had grown to more than $23,000, a claimed return of roughly 38,000%.¹

The woman also told investigators she believed Hvizdzak had impersonated a girlfriend named “Tessa” to build trust with her. The fabricated “Tessa” messaged her, accused her of violating a non-disclosure agreement, and told her that her “duty is to protect Shane.”¹

Judge Hardy found probable cause that Hvizdzak had engaged in wire fraud, concluded he had violated the mandatory condition of release that he not break the law, and determined that no set of release conditions could protect the public because Hvizdzak was “unlikely to follow them.”¹ As of mid-2026, he remains in federal custody, and no new sentencing date has been publicly reported.¹⁰

What Investors Have Recovered

Not much. The SEC’s initial asset freeze captured roughly $6 million, and the total rose to more than $7 million after the court ordered certain digital assets liquidated. That leaves at least $24 million of investor money unaccounted for. The SEC reported by January 2023 that it had exhausted its efforts to locate additional investor assets.⁵

The SEC civil action remains active but stayed in its entirety, and no formal distribution of the frozen assets to investors or fair fund has been reported.¹¹ Restitution for victims is one of the things federal prosecutors are pursuing at Shane Hvizdzak’s sentencing.⁸

Sean Hvizdzak’s Separate Case

Shane’s brother and co-defendant, Sean Hvizdzak, was a licensed Pennsylvania attorney before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania placed him on temporary suspension effective December 24, 2021.¹² On October 20, 2025, five days after Shane’s plea, Sean pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud.⁹

Sean’s exposure is not the same as Shane’s. His attorney argued that financial and blockchain records showed Shane received more than $15 million in the spring of 2020, while Sean received “next to nothing,” and under his plea agreement Sean faces a possible sentence ranging from no jail time to three months of incarceration.⁹

1
Bradford Era. Shane Hvizdzak Jailed Alleged New Fraud
2
SEC. SEC Complaint, Case No. 1:20-cv-00154-SPB
3
SEC. SEC Charges Brothers With Defrauding Digital Asset Fund Investors
4
U.S. Department of Justice. Northwestern PA Brothers Indicted Cryptocurrency Investment Scheme
5
GovInfo. USA v. Hvizdzak, Criminal No. 21-30E
6
WESB. Shane Hvizdzak Pleads Guilty to Crypto Scam
7
The Legal Intelligencer. Pennsylvania Attorney Accused of Crypto Fraud Strikes Last-Minute Plea Deal
8
WESB. Prosecutors Defense Butt Heads in Shane Hvizdzak’s Sentencing Recommendations
9
Bradford Era. Sean Hvizdzak Pleads Guilty Wire Fraud
10
CourtListener. United States v. Hvizdzak Docket, Page 2
11
GovInfo. SEC v. Hvizdzak Capital Management, Memorandum and Order
12
Pennsylvania Disciplinary Board. Elk County Attorney Sean Peter Hvizdzak Temporarily Suspended