Japheth Dillman (in black coat and purple shirt) at the Dahlias party.
Japheth Dillman (in black coat and purple shirt) at the party where the Dahlias performed.
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FBI: Japheth Dillman allegedly scammed friends and investors in a crypto fraud scheme

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 7 min

Japheth Dillman established a reputation in the game industry as a financial leader, serving as a cofounder of the game accelerator YetiZen.

But lately, that reputation is in jeopardy. On April 27, the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco, the FBI, and the Internal Revenue Service said they arrested Dillman in connection with an alleged scheme to defraud victims into investing in a cryptocurrency trading fund. On top of that, Dillman has been accused (Facebook link) of failing to pay a $50,000 bill from circus performers for a personal birthday party that Dillman threw for a friend, according to The Dahlias, who said he hired them for a performance.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.