Crypto fraudster sentenced to 8 years in token-offering scam

Filepic of a crypto farm in Romania. Fraudster Sharma forfeited 100,000 units of cryptocurrency Ether raised from victims who bought digital tokens issued by his now-defunct company. —Bloomberg

The 29-year-old founder of a defunct Florida cryptocurrency firm will spend eight years behind bars for duping investors out of more than US$36mil (RM146mil) with the help of celebrities including boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled, whom he paid to promote the business.

Sohrab "Sam” Sharma was sentenced to the federal prison term on Thursday, after pleading guilty in July to conspiring to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud as part of an initial coin offering scheme. The fraud included the false claim that the company, Centra Tech, was led by a Harvard-educated chief executive officer with decades of business experience.