Third Centra Tech Co-Founder to Plead Guilty for $25M Fraud

Sohrab “Sam” Sharma, a co-founder of dubious Initial Coin Offering (ICO) Initial Coin Offering (ICO) An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a kind of crypto token sale that is used as a method of fundraising, similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO), in which stocks are sold to raise money for a company.In order to launch an ICO, a company simply needs to create a website, issue a token, and set a time and date for the sale. Investors buy ICO tokens in exchange for another cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum; after a set amount of time, they receive the tokens they purchased in the sale.Accompanying most major ICOs has been the prevalence of a whitepaper. A whitepaper serves as both a persuasive sales pitch, and in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. Most marketers relied on whitepapers to educate their respective audience about a particular issue, or explain and promote a particular methodology that an ICO could potentially solve. The information enclosed in whitepapers have historically been met with skepticism.Why ICOs Have Fallen Out of FavorThis is due in large part to the early days of ICOs, as this practice was highly unregulated and extremely risky. Because there were no regulations delineating who could and could not hold an ICO, many bad actors or incompetent technologists saw the practice as an opportunity to grab a lot of fast cash.As a result, many investors have lost quite a lot of money – their tokens were either never returned to them, or the companies who issued the tokens failed within several months of the token’s official launch.Regulators around the world have cracked down on the practice, which has resulted in a slightly “cleaner” ICO space.However, ICOs have garnered a pretty bad reputation and are still regarded as generally untrustworthy. As such, other methods of fundraising, such as Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) and Security Token Offerings (STOs) have been born. An Initial Coin Offering (ICO) is a kind of crypto token sale that is used as a method of fundraising, similar to an Initial Public Offering (IPO), in which stocks are sold to raise money for a company.In order to launch an ICO, a company simply needs to create a website, issue a token, and set a time and date for the sale. Investors buy ICO tokens in exchange for another cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum; after a set amount of time, they receive the tokens they purchased in the sale.Accompanying most major ICOs has been the prevalence of a whitepaper. A whitepaper serves as both a persuasive sales pitch, and in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution. Most marketers relied on whitepapers to educate their respective audience about a particular issue, or explain and promote a particular methodology that an ICO could potentially solve. The information enclosed in whitepapers have historically been met with skepticism.Why ICOs Have Fallen Out of FavorThis is due in large part to the early days of ICOs, as this practice was highly unregulated and extremely risky. Because there were no regulations delineating who could and could not hold an ICO, many bad actors or incompetent technologists saw the practice as an opportunity to grab a lot of fast cash.As a result, many investors have lost quite a lot of money – their tokens were either never returned to them, or the companies who issued the tokens failed within several months of the token’s official launch.Regulators around the world have cracked down on the practice, which has resulted in a slightly “cleaner” ICO space.However, ICOs have garnered a pretty bad reputation and are still regarded as generally untrustworthy. As such, other methods of fundraising, such as Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs) and Security Token Offerings (STOs) have been born. Read this Term) of Centra Tech, has decided to take a guilty plea for defrauding investors for $25 million.

Reported by Bloomberg, Sharma’s lawyers informed the US District Judge Lorna G. Schofield in a court filing Monday in New York about the change of his plea to guilty.

Before Sharma, two other co-founder’s of the same project plead guilty in the court for fraud, the latest being Robert Farkas, who changed his plea last month. Raymon Trapani, another operator of the ICO and also the “mastermind”, was charged by the watchdog agency and he pled guilty for nine counts of the charges brought against him last year.

A hyped ICO during the market boom

The three raised $25 million in via an ICO spaned between July 2017 and March 2018 with a promise to launch a crypto debit card called “Centra Card”, allowing its users to spend in Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the networks which are used to authenticate blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies can be thought of as systems that accept online payments which are denoted as “tokens.” Tokens are represented as internal ledger entries in blockchain technology while the term crypto is used to depict cryptographic methods and encryption algorithms such as public-private key pairs, various hashing functions, and an elliptical curve. Every cryptocurrency transaction that occurs is logged in a web-based ledger with blockchain technology.These then must be approved by a disparate network of individual nodes (computers that maintain a copy of the ledger). For every new block generated, the block must first be authenticated and confirmed ‘approved’ by each node, which makes forging the transactional history of cryptocurrencies nearly impossible. The World’s First CryptoBitcoin became the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency and to this day is still the most demanded cryptocurrency and the most valued. Bitcoin still contributes the majority of the overall cryptocurrency market volume, though several other cryptos have grown in popularity in recent years.Indeed, out of the wake of Bitcoin, iterations of Bitcoin became prevalent which resulted in a multitude of newly created or cloned cryptocurrencies. Contending cryptocurrencies that emerged after Bitcoin’s success is referred to as ‘altcoins’ and they refer to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Peercoin, Namecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar, and Dash. Cryptocurrencies promise a wide range of technological innovations that have yet to be structured into being. Simplified payments between two parties without the need for a middle man is one aspect while leveraging blockchain technology to minimize transaction and processing fees for banks is another. Of course, cryptocurrencies have their disadvantages too. This includes issues of tax evasion, money laundering, and other illicit online activities where anonymity is a dire ingredient in solicitous and fraudulent activities. By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the networks which are used to authenticate blockchain technology. Cryptocurrencies can be thought of as systems that accept online payments which are denoted as “tokens.” Tokens are represented as internal ledger entries in blockchain technology while the term crypto is used to depict cryptographic methods and encryption algorithms such as public-private key pairs, various hashing functions, and an elliptical curve. Every cryptocurrency transaction that occurs is logged in a web-based ledger with blockchain technology.These then must be approved by a disparate network of individual nodes (computers that maintain a copy of the ledger). For every new block generated, the block must first be authenticated and confirmed ‘approved’ by each node, which makes forging the transactional history of cryptocurrencies nearly impossible. The World’s First CryptoBitcoin became the first blockchain-based cryptocurrency and to this day is still the most demanded cryptocurrency and the most valued. Bitcoin still contributes the majority of the overall cryptocurrency market volume, though several other cryptos have grown in popularity in recent years.Indeed, out of the wake of Bitcoin, iterations of Bitcoin became prevalent which resulted in a multitude of newly created or cloned cryptocurrencies. Contending cryptocurrencies that emerged after Bitcoin’s success is referred to as ‘altcoins’ and they refer to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Peercoin, Namecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Stellar, and Dash. Cryptocurrencies promise a wide range of technological innovations that have yet to be structured into being. Simplified payments between two parties without the need for a middle man is one aspect while leveraging blockchain technology to minimize transaction and processing fees for banks is another. Of course, cryptocurrencies have their disadvantages too. This includes issues of tax evasion, money laundering, and other illicit online activities where anonymity is a dire ingredient in solicitous and fraudulent activities. Read this Term at any outlet accepting Visa and Mastercard.

They even falsified licensing agreements from Visa, Mastercard, and Bancorp to drive the hype of the token sale. They also falsely claimed that the company acquired licenses in 38 US states and was being headed by a Harvard-educated chief executive officer with more than 20 years of business experience.

However, the biggest push to the project was made by celebrity endorsements of boxing star Floyd Mayweather and rapper DJ Khaled.

The US agencies later moved against the two celebrities as both failed to reveal their $100,000 and $50,000 payouts respectively for this and also other ICO endorsements.

Mayweather was fined with $300,000 in disgorgement, a $300,000 penalty, and nearly $15,000 in prejudgment interest for Centra Tech ICO and also for another $200,000 he failed to disclose from another two ICOs. Khaled paid $50,000 in disgorgement, a $100,000 penalty, and nearly $3,000 in prejudgment interest.