A 70% larger scoreboard was previewed during an Empower Field at Mile High Stadium renovation tour on Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. (Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
A Colorado man tricked cryptocurrency investors into giving him $1.5 million that he spent on a vacation, a vehicle and a $200,000 executive suite at Empower Field, the FBI said.
Robert Robb, 46, was charged with one count of wire fraud by prosecutors in Virginia on March 15. The case was sealed for two weeks before being made public last Thursday.
Robb, a resident of Frederick in Weld County, was arrested near Las Vegas on the afternoon of March 20, according to jail records there. He has since been released on bond.
In a lengthy affidavit unsealed Thursday, FBI Special Agent Jordan Jenkins alleges that Robb began reaching out to cryptocurrency investors through social media sites in October 2022 . He urged people with “$100,000-$200,000 sitting around” to invest in his cryptocurrency trading bot “in the next day or two,” according to screenshots of Robb’s conversations.
“You’d have to trust me a ton,” Robb told an investor from Virginia who gave $100,000.
Despite ensuring investors that their risk was “very close to zero” and sure to result in “six-figure returns” after just one week, Robb never created the bot, according to the FBI. Instead, he bought an $118,000 Jeep, paid for a $47,000 vacation to the Bahamas and spent $204,000 in investor funds on a two-year lease for an executive suite at the Broncos’ stadium, which runs through this upcoming season.
The FBI said it has interviewed 11 investors in Robb’s non-existent bot. One investor who gave $515,000 received a $75,000 refund but all other investors lost out entirely, it said.
When investors raised doubts about Robb’s project and sought refunds, he accused them of working for the FBI or, in one unusual exchange, said that he wouldn’t give information to someone “involved in a conspiracy to murder me,” according to screenshots.
Robb did not respond to emails and voicemails requesting comment. His attorney, the federal public defender Ann Rigby, did not answer requests for comment either.
The Coloradan has a history of wire fraud. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to two counts and was sentenced to 27 months after scamming 18 investors out of $4.1 million by falsely claiming that David Copperfield and top Vegas casinos were backing his prototype gambling machine. He admitted losing $1 million of that money playing $15,000-per-hand blackjack.
A 70% larger scoreboard was previewed during an Empower Field at Mile High Stadium renovation tour on Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. (Eric Lutzens/The Denver Post)
A Colorado man tricked cryptocurrency investors into giving him $1.5 million that he spent on a vacation, a vehicle and a $200,000 executive suite at Empower Field, the FBI said.
Robert Robb, 46, was charged with one count of wire fraud by prosecutors in Virginia on March 15. The case was sealed for two weeks before being made public last Thursday.
Robb, a resident of Frederick in Weld County, was arrested near Las Vegas on the afternoon of March 20, according to jail records there. He has since been released on bond.
In a lengthy affidavit unsealed Thursday, FBI Special Agent Jordan Jenkins alleges that Robb began reaching out to cryptocurrency investors through social media sites in October 2022 . He urged people with “$100,000-$200,000 sitting around” to invest in his cryptocurrency trading bot “in the next day or two,” according to screenshots of Robb’s conversations.
“You’d have to trust me a ton,” Robb told an investor from Virginia who gave $100,000.
Despite ensuring investors that their risk was “very close to zero” and sure to result in “six-figure returns” after just one week, Robb never created the bot, according to the FBI. Instead, he bought an $118,000 Jeep, paid for a $47,000 vacation to the Bahamas and spent $204,000 in investor funds on a two-year lease for an executive suite at the Broncos’ stadium, which runs through this upcoming season.
The FBI said it has interviewed 11 investors in Robb’s non-existent bot. One investor who gave $515,000 received a $75,000 refund but all other investors lost out entirely, it said.
When investors raised doubts about Robb’s project and sought refunds, he accused them of working for the FBI or, in one unusual exchange, said that he wouldn’t give information to someone “involved in a conspiracy to murder me,” according to screenshots.
Robb did not respond to emails and voicemails requesting comment. His attorney, the federal public defender Ann Rigby, did not answer requests for comment either.
The Coloradan has a history of wire fraud. In 2003, he pleaded guilty to two counts and was sentenced to 27 months after scamming 18 investors out of $4.1 million by falsely claiming that David Copperfield and top Vegas casinos were backing his prototype gambling machine. He admitted losing $1 million of that money playing $15,000-per-hand blackjack.