Justice Department leaders plan to drop charges against the alleged mastermind of a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme that prosecutors said defrauded investors of $722 million, reversing course on a 2019 indictment that was nearing trial.

The deputy attorney general’s office in Washington recently ordered the New Jersey US attorney’s office to dismiss the prosecution with prejudice, although final terms are still being hashed out before the parties inform the court, said two people familiar with the matter. The reprieve for a Colorado man who, according to court filings, once described his model as built “on the backs of idiots,” comes during President Donald Trump’s retreat on crypto industry enforcement.

Matthew Goettsche created…