An American court, based in Manhattan, recently sentenced Robert Farkas, the managing operator of fraudulent crypto investment firm, Centra Tech, to a year and a day in prison.
Recent reports coming from the U.S Department of Justice revealed that Farkas successfully sought $25 million in crypto investment about three years ago when there was an initial coin offering boom.
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The initial coin offering famously included campaigns from popularly known American boxer, Floyd Mayweather and musician DJ Khaled, both of whom got into legal issues for failing to reveal that they were paid for the services rendered.
A report, as seen by Nairametrics, reveals that about 100,000 Ether units were seized by the law enforcement agents and sold for about $33.4 million, and would be returned to victims of Centra Tech fraud.
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- “In 2018, this Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) seized, pursuant to judicially authorized seizure warrants, 100,000 Ether units, consisting of digital funds raised from victims who purchased digital tokens issued by Centra Tech during its ICO, based on fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions.
- “The United States Marshals Service sold the seized Ether units for approximately $33.4 million earlier this year. Following entry of a final order of forfeiture; these funds, and other forfeited fraud proceeds will be available for potential use in a remission program that the Department of Justice intends to create to compensate victims of the Centra Tech fraud.”
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What you should know
- Centra was founded by Sam Sharma, Raymond Trapani and Robert Farkas.
- ICO is an acronym for Initial Coin Offering, which is a process that involves raising capital for a new crypto offering. It’s similar to Initial Public Offering in principle.
- An ICO typically involves selling a new crypto at a discount, primarily for the company to raise funds. If such cryptocurrency outperforms and gains in value – often based on speculation – the investor earns a profit.
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