Cryptocurrencies: SEC charges co-founders of Centra Tech with orchestrating fraudulent ICO

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) statement on charges laid against co-founders of Centra Tech with orchestrating fraudulent  initial coin offering

• The ICO raised more than USD32 million last year
• Sohrab (Sam) Sharma and Robert Farkas charged

SEC alleges a fraudulent ICO

• in which Centra offered and sold unregistered investments through a “CTR Token.”
• Sharma and Farkas allegedly claimed that funds raised in the ICO would help build a suite of financial products
• They claimed, for example, to offer a debit card backed by Visa and MasterCard that would allow users to instantly convert hard-to-spend cryptocurrencies into U.S. dollars or other legal tender

In reality, the SEC alleges, Centra had no relationships with Visa or MasterCard.

SEC also alleges that to promote the ICO, Sharma and Farkas created fictional executives with impressive biographies,

• posted false or misleading marketing materials to Centra’s website,
• and paid celebrities to tout the ICO on social media.

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BTC has been on the soft side, won’t be helped by news like this. Though I imagine there may have been some front-running of the news 😉 :