Former CEO and CFO of crypto lending firm Cred LLC sentenced to imprisonment and fined for conspiracy to commit wire fraud

According to ChainCatcher, a federal district court judge, William Alsup, has sentenced former Cred LLC CEO Daniel Schatt and CFO Joseph Podulka to 52 months and 36 months of federal imprisonment, respectively, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

In addition to imprisonment, Judge Alsup also sentenced Schatt and Podulka to three years of supervised release each and ordered them to pay a $25,000 fine. The defendants are scheduled to begin serving their sentences on October 28, 2025. Judge Alsup has scheduled a restitution hearing for October 7, 2025.

According to the plea agreement, Schatt and Podulka conspired to provide incomplete and unreasonably positive descriptions of Cred's business, resulting in misleading information, while failing to disclose significant negative information about the challenges and risks facing Cred's business, which would harm Cred's customers.

On November 7, 2020, Cred filed for bankruptcy. In the Cred bankruptcy proceedings, customers and investors of Cred submitted more than 6,000 claims, totaling over $140 millions.

According to the government's sentencing memorandum, based on the valuation of various cryptocurrencies lost by customers as of August 2025, the total amount of these claims exceeds $1.1 billions.