Finally, Crypto’s biggest villain of 2014 has his saga come to an end. A little less than three years after Paycoin’s launch and failure the CEO of GAW Miners, Joshua Homero Garza has been sentenced to 21 months in prison, along with an order to pay $9,187,000 in restitution and three years of supervised release after serving his sentence. The agreed on plea deal suggested that Garza serve significantly more time, up to 78 months. With good behavior, Garza could be out in 18 months.
Garza’s Lawyer asked for Garza to be sentenced to only supervised release and community service, eschewing jail time entirely. Judge Robert N. Chatigny determined that would not be enough of a general deterrent to prevent similar financial crimes in the future. She called Garza a changed man and said that he is no longer the egomaniac that he was when he perpetrated the scam. She also cited his new business (the details of which were unknown to reporters) as a reason for the low sentence. The idea being that if the business can survive he will be able to pay back the victims. The victims in attendance did not think that was likely.
Garza was also given three and a half months to prepare the business before he has to turn himself in. He was also allowed to pick which facility he will spend his incarceration in. Garza will begin his sentence on January 4th 2019.
It likely isn’t the amount of justice that Garza’s victims would have liked to see. Garza was facing up to 20 years of prison for each of his infractions, technically enough to send him away for the rest of his life. That was always unlikely, however, and Garza agreed to a plea deal in order to get
