The co-founder of the 2017 Centra Tech ICO, which happens to be a fraud, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his involvement in the fraudulent scheme.
Sohrab Sharma, who was involved in the notorious initial coin offering spruiked by a celebrity in 2017, Centra Tech, has bagged eight years imprisonment for being the team leader of the scheme that duped many investors with over $25 Million.
Sharma pleaded guilty previously to the fact that he conspires to commit internet fraud, mail fraud, securities fraud, and for the misrepresentations he and his subordinates and co-conspirators made to solicit investors’ participation in the fraudulent scheme.
The United States Attorney in charge of the case, Ilan Graff, has described the act by Sharma as a scheme to led investors astray by claiming falsely that the start-up he and his co-workers created is a fully functional and cutting-edge financial product in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The Real Nature of the Fraud
Graff said that in reality, the notable creations by Sharma are fake business partnerships, fake executives, and also fake licenses that he and his notorious gang set up to trap uninformed victims in investing their money in tens of millions of dollars.”
Evidence from the court revealed that around July 2017, Sharma, Raymond Trapani, and Robert Farkas (his co-defendants) founded Centra and claimed that the financial company offered a crypto debit card and other mind-blowing products related to the digital assets’ world. The gang then went ahead to create an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) between July 2017 and October 2017, sharing unlicensed securities in the form of Centra Tech (CTR) tokens.
Misrepresentations and Misleading of the Public
To further aggravate the case, they went about claiming false partnerships with MasterCard, Bancorp, and Visa in 38 states in the United States with a fictional CEO attached to the profile of the firm stating to have over 20 years of experience in the financial industry, especially the banking sector having bagged degrees in the prestigious Harvard University.
At the end of the ICO, they realized over $25 million, which the authorities found out that the assets now worth $60 million in 2018. Reports have it that Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled unknowingly promoted the scheme on social media that year for a six-figure settlement Robert Farkas has been sentenced to one year in prison for his collaborative role in the fraudulent scheme. While Trapani also pleaded guilty.
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