Centra Tech Co-Founder Gets 8 Years for Crypto Fraud

Sohrab Sharma, aka "Sam Sharma," a co-founder of the cryptocurrency firm Centra Tech, has been sentenced to eight years in jail for conducting an illegal initial coin offering (ICO) that fleeced investors of $25 million.

The Miami-based company had purported to offer crypto-based financial products such as a debit card, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York on Thursday.

Sharma was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay a fine of $20,000 and ordered to forfeit $36,088,960.

In July 2017, Sohrab Sharma and partners Robert Farkas, Raymond Trapani held an initia coin offering, raising the $25 million from investors who had believed Centra Tech's claims.

Sharma previously pled guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud in connection with his co-conspirators’ use of material misrepresentations and omissions to solicit investors to purchase securities, in the form of digital tokens issued by Centra Tech, through fraudulent fundraising efforts that included an ICO, said the news release.

In December, Farkas was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for his part in the scam.

Farkas will also face three years of supervised release and must forfeit $347,062 and a Rolex watch purchased with the proceeds of the scam.

The U.S. Marshals Service sold ether cryptocurrency seized from Centra Tech for about $33.4 million.

Read more: Centra Tech Co-Founder Handed Prison Term for $25M Crypto Fraud