Security News > 2020 > June > Crypto founder admits $25 million ICO backed by celebrities was a scam
The Miami-based cryptocurrency firm Centra Tech was built on fairy dust and paid celebrity hoo-ha, but co-founder Robert Joseph Farkas is going to be doing real time in a real prison for the $25 million initial coin offering rip-off.
Centra Tech's founders included Farkas, who held different roles, such as chief marketing officer and chief operating officer.
In November 2018, the SEC announced that it had fined both celebrities for failing to disclose the fact that Centra paid them to hype its ICO - the first such cases of that kind.
By around October 2017, at the end of Centra Tech's ICO, the fakery firm had raised digital currency worth more than $25 million.
The house of cards fell apart on or about May 2018 and October 2018, when the FBI and the Southern New York Attorney's Office seized 100,000 Ether units that victims had forked over to buy digital tokens issued by Centra Tech during its ICO. The three co-founders were charged with lying to investors.