The former chief financial officer of a pair of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) has been sentenced to three years in jail after admitting to fraud charges for embezzling US$5 million from the firms to trade crypto and meme stocks.

The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) reported that Cooper Morgenthau, former CFO to a pair of SPACs — African Gold Acquisition Corp. and Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp. — was sentenced to 36 months in jail and ordered to forfeit US$5.1 million and pay US$5.1 million in restitution. Previously, Morgenthau pled guilty to wire fraud charges.

Morgenthau was accused of embezzling US$5 million from the SPACs to trade “meme stocks” and cryptocurrency, all of which was lost.

To hide the fraud, he allegedly falsified bank statements and other filings to hide the fraud from auditors and regulators.

“With today’s sentencing of Cooper Morgenthau, SPAC promoters have been sent a message that fraud in the SPAC markets will be punished, and greed on Wall Street will be met with serious consequences,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the SDNY.

Alongside the criminal case, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also filed civil charges against Morgenthau back in January. In that case, he consented to a judgment enjoining him from further securities laws violations and banning him from serving as an officer or director of publicly traded companies.