The well-known personality now faces up to 20 years behind bars.
Michael Stollery, CEO of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services, has recently announced that he was involved in a crypto-based fraud scheme, which brought in $21M via a fraudulent initial coin offering (ICO).
According to the official announcement issued on July 25th by the US Justice Department, Stollery posted misleading statements, falsified white papers, and lured investors to acquire the company’s native token BAR. On top of that, the DOJ also mentioned that he didn’t register his ICO with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
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The news arrives after Stollery and his whole company were linked to a securities fraud back in May 2018. The SEC claimed that Stollery violated the watchdog’s anti-fraud registration provisions.
The CEO also confessed that he used a significant portion of his clients' money to pay for his taxes and credit card bills.
Stollery’s lawyer Andrew Holmes recently commented on the shocking news and mentioned that the CEO wanted to keep his company clean at first, however, he lost his way in the end. On top of that, Holmes noted that Stollery has been working with the authorities right from the beginning, adding:
"He’s very remorseful and he wants to get as much money as possible back to those that put their money in."
If the story checks out, the agency noted that Stollery is facing up to 20 years in prison, with the last decision coming on November 18th.
It seems as though federal regulators have been keen on investigating suspicious players in the crypto space. For instance, last week, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed charges against former Coinbase manager Ishan Wahi for a possible wire fraud conspiracy.
