The youth, who was 16 when he committed the crimes, told his friends he would help them invest in the foreign exchange and cryptocurrency markets.
But the youth, who is now 20, wanted some of the money to buy items used in online games such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which he had planned to later sell for a profit.In total, he cheated his victims of $332,067. The three victims in the charges he pleaded guilty to were his schoolmates. They were 17 years old at the time.
The court heard that one of them had given him $106,050 over at least 26 occasions between May 8, 2018 and Aug 11 that year.Another victim, a classmate of the youth, gave him $188,847 over at least 35 occasions between January 2018 and Aug 18 that year.The third victim gave $5,000 to the accused as an investment and did not receive any returns.