FRESNO - Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced that Andrew Adler, 31, of Greenwich, Connecticut, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in defrauding investors out of $20 million in loans made to the failed Fresno-based start-up company Bitwise Industries.
According to court records, between December 2022 and May 2023, Adler and his business partner, David Hardcastle, 61, of Fresno, gave Bitwise approximately $20 million in hard money loans through their special purpose entity, Startop Investments LLC. Adler and Hardcastle used a syndicate of investors to fund the loans.
To mislead the investors, Adler and Hardcastle altered the original loan documents to make it appear that Bitwise was obligated to pay significantly less interest on the loans than was true. They also forged the signature of Bitwise’s Co-CEO, Jake Soberal, on the altered documents. This made the loans appear less risky and more appealing to investors.
Adler and Hardcastle received tens of thousands of dollars in origination fees for the loans. Had the loans been fully repaid, they would have made millions more in secret profits from the higher, undisclosed interest rates. Bitwise, however, did not repay the loans before collapsing, and the investors in the loans lost nearly all of their money. On Feb. 3, 2025, Hardcastle was arrested and arraigned on an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud.
This case is the result of an FBI investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph D. Barton and Cody S. Chapple are prosecuting it.
Adler is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston on June 2, 2025. Adler faces maximum statutory penalties of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge. If convicted, Hardcastle faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and for each of the substantive wire fraud charges. Sentences are determined at the discretion of the court after considering any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which consider several variables.
Hardcastle is charged in a separate indictment, which remains pending. Those charges are only allegations, and he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
