Andrew Adler, a 31-year-old resident of Greenwich, Connecticut, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He admitted to defrauding investors out of $20 million in loans directed towards the failed Fresno-based start-up Bitwise Industries. This announcement was made by Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith.
Court documents reveal that between December 2022 and May 2023, Adler and his business partner David Hardcastle, aged 61 from Fresno, provided Bitwise with approximately $20 million in hard money loans via their entity Startop Investments LLC. They sourced funds for these loans through a syndicate of investors. To deceive these investors, Adler and Hardcastle altered original loan documents to suggest that Bitwise was liable for significantly lower interest payments than reality reflected. Additionally, they forged the signature of Jake Soberal, Co-CEO of Bitwise, on these falsified documents. This deception made the loans appear less risky and more attractive to potential investors.
Adler and Hardcastle collected tens of thousands in origination fees from these loans and stood to gain millions more in undisclosed profits from higher interest rates had the loans been repaid in full. However, Bitwise failed to repay the loans before its collapse, resulting in substantial losses for the investors involved.
On February 3, 2025, Hardcastle was arrested and arraigned on charges including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud itself.
The FBI conducted the investigation leading to this case's development. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph D. Barton and Cody S. Chapple are overseeing prosecution efforts.
Adler is slated for sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on June 2, 2025. He faces up to 20 years imprisonment along with a $250,000 fine if convicted on the conspiracy charge alone. Similarly charged with both conspiracy and substantive wire fraud offenses, Hardcastle could face maximum penalties identical to those confronting Adler if found guilty.
While charges against Hardcastle remain pending within a separate indictment contextually linked yet distinct from Adler's plea agreement outcomes—those allegations remain unproven until established beyond reasonable doubt per judicial standards governing innocence presumptions applicable across similar legal proceedings nationally observed today.