SafeMoon (SFM) CEO & CTO arrested for Safemoon crypto fraud
The DOJ announced that key executives of the Safemoon crypto project have been arrested and the SEC filed suit against the Safemoon crypto project.
SafeMoon is a popular crypto meme coin that grabbed huge popularity in the crypto sector because of the endorsement of several social media stars. But when the trade price of this coin failed to grab a stable level of increment & the project team failed to bring any use case or development activity for this token then many people jumped against the Safemoon coin promoters & project team.
On 2 Nov 2023, The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced charges against Safemoon company as well as SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy, CEO John Karony, and chief technology officer Thomas Smith.
As per SEC’s Investigation report, SafeMoon team failed to complete its promise related to the Safemoon funds and unethically played against the Safemoon Investors.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said:
“As alleged, the defendants deliberately misled investors and diverted millions of dollars to fuel their greedy scheme and enrich themselves by purchasing a custom Porsche sports car, other luxury vehicles, and real estate.”
Also, the SEC agency found that its key executives were trying to pump SFM coin & attract new SFM investors through wash trading.
On the same day, The Justice Department (DOJ) also announced action against the Safemoon project and confirmed that John Karony and Thomas Smith had been arrested for conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.
It is believed that the US financial regulator SEC & some other enforcement agencies started their investigation against the SafeMoon crypto project in Feb of last year following a class action lawsuit against social media stars including Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, Lil Yachty and YouTubers Jake Paul and Ben Phillips for their involvement in SafeMoon promotion.
The lawsuit targeted the Safemoon project team as well as the promoters. The plaintiff claimed that the promoters & project team played a pump dump game against the retail investors to make money only for personal benefits.
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