A 39-year-old software engineer was arrested for his role in an illegal bitcoin exchange

The man, Yuri Lebedev, came to the U.S. from the Ukraine seeking the American dream, but was recently sentenced to 16 months in prison.

Recently, while standing before his sentence, Lebedev stated that he regretted getting involved with Coin.mx in the first place, and that all he wanted to do was “create cutting edge technology that would make me exceptional.” He added that he got carried away, and that now realizes “there are now shortcuts.”

Lebedev, according to reports, was born in Russia and raised in Ukraine. When he was just 8 years old, he was abandoned by his alcoholic father and was raised by his mother, who was a scientist. At 16 he was selected to move the U.S. state of Georgia after winning awards in math, physics, and biology. In the U.S., he double-majored in physics and computer science, and obtained post-graduate degrees.

Defense filings even show that at the time his math teacher said that the U.S. “received a genius from the Ukraine.” His attorney, Eric Creizman, pointed out that he was only 16 when he moved to America, stating: