Sohrab ‘Sam’ Sharma was also ordered to forfeit more than $36 million.
The co-founder of a Miami-based firm that claimed to offer cryptocurrency-related financial products has been sentenced to eight years in prison for his role in a scheme that took more than $25 million from victims investing in the company’s digital funds.
Sohrab “Sam” Sharma pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud in connection with material misrepresentations and omissions used to solicit investors to buy digital tokens issued by Centra Tech, the company he co-founded, through fraudulent fundraising that included an initial coin offering (ICO).
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Centra Tech Boss Gets 8 Years For $36M Crypto Scam
Law360 (March 4, 2021, 9:31 PM EST) The founder of Centra Tech Inc. on Thursday was sentenced to eight years in prison over a scheme that conned victims into investing more than $36 million into the cryptocurrency company that claimed to offer a digital currency payment card.
During an hours-long sentencing hearing conducted by videoconference that was marred at times by technical glitches, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield told the scheme s mastermind, Sohrab Sam Sharma, 29, that she was going relatively easy on him by handing down a sentence of just over half the time called for by the top end of the advisory sentencing guidelines range.
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Crypto Grifter Gets Year For Role In $36M Centra Tech Fraud
Law360, New York (December 15, 2020, 4:43 PM EST) A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a college dropout from Florida to a year and a day in prison for promoting a $36 million cryptocurrency fraud that included a bogus initial coin offering sparing the Centra Tech Inc. scammer a longer sentence due to his relatively minor role.
U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield also ordered defendant Robert Farkas, 34, to forfeit $347,000 and a luxury watch given to him by his Centra Tech co-founder Sohrab Sam Sharma, also of Florida, the alleged mastermind of the scheme, who is scheduled to be sentenced in January.