Joel Ortiz was arrested at LAX, dressed head to toe in ostentations and gaudy Gucci, as he was about to fly to Europe with $250,000 in cash converted from cryptocurrency that he’d stolen from at least 40 victims a few months earlier to the tune of $7.5 million. Tracked by REACT, a Santa Clara, California cybercrime unit, his irresistible urge to gloat and his overthetop trail of lavish spending and flaunting of riches on social media made him an easy catch. But how did this onetime high school Valedictorian and Information Technology student at UMass, a kid who grew up in Boston public housing, get here? Was this smart and techsavvy but socially awkward loner really the mastermind or was he being manipulated by a larger criminal Community?

This episode of Cowboy Kings of Crypto was created in 2022.

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