Centra Tech CEO Convicted by New York Court to Jail

The New York Federal Court convicted Robert Farkas, founder of Centra Tech, to jail.

On Tuesday, June 16, the Department of Justice published a press release on Centra Tech. According to the report, Farkas “pleaded guilty to one count of the securities fraud conspiracy and one count of money fraud” before Judge James L. Cott of the Southern District of New York.

Farkas and his associates were responsible for organizing the fraudulent Initial Coin Offer (ICO) between 2017 and 2018. In October 2017, the fraud raised more than $25 million. By 2018, it had raised more than $60 million.

It was found that Centra Tech from the very beginning intended to trick unsuspecting investors. Its alleged CEO, Michael Edwards, was a fake graduate of Harvard University with over 20 years of banking experience.

The company was attended by such celebrities as music producer DJ Khaled and heavyweight boxer Floyd Mayweather. Although two celebrities said they did not know about Centra Tech fraud, the SEC fined them $700,000.
As part of the conviction for Centra Tech, Farkas will serve a jail term of 70 to 87 months and pay a fine of $250,000. His accomplices will appear in court in November. The sentencing date for Farkas will be announced by Judge Lorna G. Schofield later.

Back in March, the Department of Justice convicted two Canadians to jail for stealing bitcoins.

Centra Tech Fake Claims
Centra Tech was founded by Farkas along with defendants Sohrab Sharma and Raymond Trapani, as per details and other requests and statements in a public trial in July 2017 or so. The company claimed to sell cryptocurrency-related financial products like the alleged Centra Card debit card that allegedly allowed users to make cryptocurrency transactions at institutions that accept Visa or Mastercard payment cards.

From around 30 July 2017 to 5 October 2017, FARKAS and its co-workers offered investors to purchase unregistered securities through an ICO in the form of digital tokens issued by Centra Tech (‘Centra tokens’ or ‘CTR tokens’).