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Stacks of Lies and Fake Documents: Prosecutors Detail the Fraud Hatched by Bitwise's Guilty CEOs
Bill McEwen updated website photo 2024
By Bill McEwen, News Director
Published 5 months ago on
July 17, 2024

Jake Soberal (left) and Irma Olguin, Jr. plead guilty to one count of wire fraud, and one wire fraud conspiracy count on Wednesday, July 17, 2024. (GV Wire Composite/Paul Marshall)

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After the former CEOs of Bitwise Industries entered guilty pleas to wire fraud and conspiracy on Wednesday morning at Fresno’s federal courthouse, the Department of Justice issued a news release outlining key elements of their $115 million fraud scheme.

“They fabricated financial information in investor materials and altered and forged other financial records to inflate the company’s revenues, cash balances, and other financial markers.” — Statement from the Department of Justice

In a nutshell, Bitwise was a financial house of cards and in an effort to prop it up, then CEOs Irma Olguin, Jr. and Jake Soberal presented fake documents to potential investors and lied repeatedly about the company’s collapsing financial condition to its board of directors, potential investors, the Fresno community at large, and company employees.

“Olguin, Jr. and Soberal admitted that they used their positions as Bitwise’s co-Chief Executive Officers to conceal their fraud from the company’s board of directors and others at the company. They also admitted to using sophisticated means to deceive and cheat investors and lenders out of their money,” the Department of Justice said.

“They fabricated financial information in investor materials and altered and forged other financial records to inflate the company’s revenues, cash balances, and other financial markers.”

Irma Olguin Jr. and Jake Soberal fell from hobnobbing with local officials, governors, and presidents to pleading guilty to a $115 million fraud. (GV Wire Composite from Facebook posts)

Key Elements of the Fraud

Here are some examples of criminal conduct by the co-conspirators that FBI agents and IRS investigators uncovered for the case being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph Barton and Henry Carbajal III:

— In a February 2022 presentation and July 2022 prospectus circulated to investors, Olguin, Jr. and Soberal represented that Bitwise’s cash balance was more than $44 million at the close of 2021. They also represented company revenue exceeding $58 million. The company’s cash balance actually was less than $12 million and its revenue was minimal.

— In June and July 2022, Olguin, Jr. and Soberal falsely represented to a California-based investment firm that Bitwise had secured a $150 million from a London-based investment firm. This was done to convince a California-based investment firm to purchase several buildings that Bitwise owned. Several months later, Soberal falsely represented to another lender that Bitwise still owned those buildings to get the lender to loan Bitwise millions more dollars.

Click here for GV Wire’s coverage of Bitwise.
— In a March 2023 presentation circulated to investors, Olguin, Jr. and Soberal represented that Bitwise’s cash balance was over $77 million at the end of 2022. They also represented that the company’s revenue was more than $143 million. In reality, the company’s cash balance was less than $5 million and its revenue remained scant.

— Also in March 2023, Olguin, Jr. and Soberal provided an investor with an altered version of an audit of Bitwise that was previously conducted by an international audit firm. They altered the audit to make it appear Bitwise’s revenue was 300%  higher than it was.

— Also in March 2023, Soberal represented to a long-time Bitwise employee that the company had sufficient resources on-hand to convince the employee to make a significant loan to the company.

This pattern continued until the end of May 2023 when Bitwise ran out of money and the company collapsed, prosecutors said.

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Bill McEwen,
News Director
Bill McEwen is news director and columnist for GV Wire. He joined GV Wire in August 2017 after 37 years at The Fresno Bee. With The Bee, he served as Opinion Editor, City Hall reporter, Metro columnist, sports columnist and sports editor through the years. His work has been frequently honored by the California Newspapers Publishers Association, including authoring first-place editorials in 2015 and 2016. Bill and his wife, Karen, are proud parents of two adult sons, and they have two grandsons. You can contact Bill at 559-492-4031 or at Send an Email

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