Canadian citizen sentenced in Cleveland to 4 years in prison for $8.2 million cryptocurrency scheme

CLEVELAND, Ohio — A Canadian citizen who helped launch an $8.2 million international cryptocurrency scheme was sentenced Thursday to four years and three months in prison.

Yan Ouellet, 41, of Quebec helped his former company PlexCorps defraud more than 15,000 investors by lying to them about the company’s plans and its ability to unseat giants like Bitcoin with its own virtual currency called PlexCoin.