A New York federal court has sentenced Robert Farkas, founder of Centra Tech, to prison.
On Tuesday, June 16, the Department of Justice published a press release on Centra Tech. According to the report, Farkas “pled guilty to one count of securities fraud conspiracy and one count of wire fraud conspiracy” before Judge James L. Cott of the Southern District of New York.
Farkas and his co-conspirators were responsible for orchestrating a fraudulent Initial Coin Offering (ICO) between 2017 and 2018. In October 2017, the scam raised over $25 million. By 2018, it had raised over $60 million.
It was determined that from inception, Centra Tech intended to scam unsuspecting investors. Its alleged CEO, Michael Edwards, was a fictitious Harvard University alumnus with over 20 years of experience in the banking industry.
The company went as far as hiring celebrities such as music producer DJ Khaled and heavyweight boxer Floyd Mayweather. Although the two celebrities claimed they were unaware of Centra Tech’s scam, they were fined over $700,000 collectively by the SEC.
As part of the sentence for Centra Tech, Farkas would serve a prison time between 70 to 87 months and pay a fine of $250,000. His co-conspirators will face trial in November. Farkas’ sentence date will be announced by Judge Lorna G. Schofield on a later date.
Back in March, the Department of Justice sentenced two Canadians to prison, for Bitcoin theft.
Image Credits: Pixabay
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