Judge slams ‘evil’ crypto ripoff artist

A Staten Island fraudster who scammed people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by convincing them to give him money for a bogus cryptocurrency business was sentenced Thursday to nearly three years in prison.

Patrick McDonnell, 47, told his victims — including one who spent $167,000 — he would buy and trade virtual currencies if they invested with his company CabbageTech between 2014 and 2018.

“You are evil … And these people are injured,” Magistrate Judge Nicholas Garaufis said to McDonnell before his sentencing in Brooklyn Federal Court. “I have little sympathy for this defendant.”

McDonnell pleaded guilty to wire fraud in August.

One victim, a 69-year-old retiree, recounted his dealings with McDonnell in a statement read by prosecutors.

The man wrote that McDonnell, using the name Jason Flack, repeatedly called him to invest in Coin Drop Markets, another name for CabbageTech.

He initially invested $250, but McDonnell wanted more.

“I bought another $25,000 in other crypto coins,” the letter read. But when the victim reached out to McDonnell to take his money out, he never got it back. McDonnell’s fake website showed the man’s investment ballooned to over $100,000.

“It caused me a lot of pain and grief,” the man wrote.

McDonnell kept the money for himself. He told another victim he had more than 8,000 investors and traded over $50 million in Bitcoin.

The crypto creep even made an online video of himself in a Guy Fawkes mask used by the hacking group Anonymous.

He was ordered by Judge Garaufis to pay $224,350 in restitution.

“I’m sincerely apologetic,” McDonnell said before his sentencing. “There is no excuse for what I’ve done, and I accept complete responsibility for what I’ve done.”