CBC reported a 25-month Miami sentence for Trenton Johnston. IBTimes UK reported time served.

A guilty plea is the conviction on the count that was admitted. It does not settle the length of the term when the outlets do not print the same order, and it does not dispose of a Florida drug charge that is still pending. CBC's article says 25 months and more time in a U.S. prison. Its subheadline says time served. IBTimes UK says the sentence covers the months he has already spent in custody. Neither story named the judge.

CBC News reported that a U.S. federal judge in Miami on Monday, Oct. 26, 2026, sentenced Trenton Richard David Johnston, also called Trent, to 25 months after he pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy and handed over $3.8 million in stolen cryptocurrency. The CBC story, by Thomas Daigle, says he will spend more time in a U.S. prison before being deported to Canada, and the photo caption on that story also says 25 months. The subheadline on the same page says he was sentenced to time served. IBTimes UK reported that the court sentenced him to time served on Oct. 26, and that the sentence covers the seven months he has spent in custody since March. A 25-month term and a time-served term are not the same order. Neither outlet named the judge or quoted a written judgment. Johnston is 20. CBC reported he was 19 when he was arrested in March 2026 in North Miami and that he has been in custody since that arrest.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a May 11, 2026 release that a grand jury indicted Johnston, then 19, and Brandon Michael Tardibone, 28, of Miami, in a cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme with losses exceeding $13 million, case number 26-cr-20181. The release said Johnston and others allegedly impersonated support representatives from a popular search engine and cryptocurrency-related companies, then transferred victims' holdings. It did not name the companies. CBC reported that Homeland Security Investigations found he impersonated Google tech support staff and representatives of crypto firms. IBTimes UK reported investigators said he and co-conspirators posed as support staff for Google, the wallet maker Trezor, and other crypto firms. CBC reported that in March, Johnston and an unnamed co-conspirator took 185 bitcoin, about $13 million at the time and the victim's life savings, from a victim in California. IBTimes UK reported the largest theft was on March 13, that a criminal complaint by HSI Special Agent Ivan Sanchez said none of that bitcoin had been recovered, and that court documents put the stolen total at at least $13.04 million. IBTimes UK also reported a separate February 2026 California loss of about $41,000 in ether. CBC reported a complaint quoted Johnston writing to an accomplice, "We actually smacked a 185btc target today," "Club feels mad good after today," and "And we ain't done." IBTimes UK printed the first and third lines and reported the messages were on Signal. CBC reported a defense filing said that after the arrest he "turned over all of the stolen cryptocurrency in his possession," about $3.8 million in bitcoin and ether, and that lawyer Brooke C. Watson wrote he "quickly admitted his conduct and is tremendously sorry for what he has done." IBTimes UK reported the same $3.8 million figure and the same remorse line, and reported it was not clear whether the court ordered restitution. The $3.8 million and the unrecovered 185 bitcoin are both in the reporting. They are not a finding that the California victim has been paid back.

CBC reported prosecutors described an extravagant nightlife in the Miami area, where he relocated in 2024, and purchases that included a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, two BMWs, jewelry, and a private jet rental. CBC reported a witness told investigators he showed others the thefts by sharing his screen on Discord. IBTimes UK reported co-defendant Tardibone, described as a Miami exotic-car dealer, handled transactions totaling $1.19 million over three months under Johnston's plea agreement, and that prosecutors said Tardibone housed him at a luxury Miami-area residence to help him evade immigration authorities. The May release accused Tardibone of harboring Johnston and of laundering proceeds, and said more than $1 million in proceeds went to luxury vehicles, jewelry, and nightlife. IBTimes UK reported Tardibone pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy the same day Johnston did, that prosecutors recommended 27 to 33 months for Tardibone, and that the outcome of Tardibone's sentencing was not clear. CBC and IBTimes UK reported a defense filing said the scheme started in January 2024, when Johnston was 17. He is 20 now. The sentence reported this week is the adult prosecution. CBC reported he crossed from Fort Erie, Ontario, to Buffalo, New York, in October 2024 at 18 on a 12-month tourist visa and overstayed it. His hometown is redacted in the court documents CBC described.

CBC reported he was arrested in March in the back of a Rolls-Royce Cullinan in North Miami that smelled of freshly burned marijuana, with suspected amphetamine tablets in a Hermès bag, which CBC spelled Hermes. IBTimes UK reported a sheriff's deputy stopped a white Rolls-Royce Cullinan on March 24, that a sworn affidavit counted 21 suspected amphetamine tablets, and that the state drug arrest was that day. IBTimes UK reported he still faces that Florida drug possession charge. CBC reported the same pending state charge. IBTimes UK reported he pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, that prosecutors had recommended 51 to 63 months under the plea agreement and dropped a wire-fraud conspiracy charge, and that they later told the court he provided "substantial assistance in the investigation and prosecution" of other people who were not named. CBC reported the same plea bargain, the withdrawal of the wire-fraud count, the same assistance language, and that the U.S. Attorney's Office had previously said he faced 20 years if convicted on both original counts. The May release said that 20-year exposure applied to each of those two counts if he were convicted. CBC reported he already agreed to a removal order an immigration judge issued in April and is expected to be handed to ICE for deportation to Canada. IBTimes UK reported the plea deal commits him to assist in his own removal, and that it was not clear when he will be released. The federal plea is the conviction on the money-laundering count. The state drug charge is still a charge, and IBTimes UK did not report a sentence for Tardibone. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.