Suspect Arrested in Cryptocurrency Investment Fraud Targeting First Responders
TRENTON — The Attorney General’s Office today announced that a retired state Department of Corrections Lieutenant from Atlantic County has been arrested, after allegedly targeting and defrauding first responders he convinced to invest in a purported new cryptocurrency investment fund.
John A. DeSalvo, 47, of Linwood, a former resident of Marmora, N.J., was arrested on August 23, 2023, by investigators from the state Division of Criminal Justice (DCJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The charges stem from an investigation by the Cybercrimes Unit of DCJ, the New Jersey Division of Taxation, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the FBI, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
During the course of the investigation, it was learned that DeSalvo, who retired from the Department of Corrections on May 1, 2010, marketed to his victims a cryptocurrency token he called Blazar, representing to prospective investors that their returns from it…