Bitwise Industries file photo

Andrew Adler, 31, of Connecticut was sentenced Monday by the U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston to three years and five months in prison for defrauding investors in loans made to the failed Fresno startup Bitwise Industries.

Adler was ordered to pay $9.3 million in restitution jointly and severally with the Bitwise defendants, and also forfeit another $1 million.

Prosecutors said that Adler and his business partner, Fresno native and 61-year-old David Hardcastle, loaned Bitwise about $20 million from December 2022 through May 2023. Rather than funding the loans themselves, they syndicated them to other investors.

The two also altered loan documents to falsely show lower interest rates and forged the signature of former Bitwise co-CEO Jake Soberal, misleading investors about the loans’ risk.

Soberal and Irma Olguin Jr., the other co-CEO, were previously sentenced to 11 and nine years, respectively, for a $115 million Ponzi-like scheme.

Adler used a $714,000 interest reserve, intended to protect investors, to fund an unrelated personal investment. He and Hardcastle collected tens of thousands in fees and wanted to profit further from undisclosed interest rates. Adler admitted in court that greed motivated his fraud.

Hardcastle is awaiting trial and remains presumed innocent.