The 2018 ICO saga came to an end as the CEO of Titanium blockchain received a 4-year jail sentence after pleading guilty eight months ago.
A March 24th press release by the US Department of Justice revealed that Michael Alan Stollery, the founder, and CEO of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Service Inc (TBIS), will spend four years and three months behind bars.
The man was sentenced for facilitating TBIS’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) fraud between 2017 and 2018, in which investors lost $21 million.
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Stollery was accused of promoting TBIS as a crypto investment opportunity, using “false and misleading information” to allure investors to purchase TBIS’s ICO crypto token, “BARs.” The fraudulent ICO targeted investors from the US and abroad.
The press release also states that Stollery forged some sections of the TBS’s whitepapers, which explained the purpose of the project and its unique features.
The former Titanium Executive was also accused of failing to register the ICO project with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Additionally, he faked client testimonials on the project’s official website.
Stollery also created an appearance of legitimacy by falsely claiming “business relationships with the Federal Reserve and dozens of prominent companies.”
The court also found out that Stollery misused the invested funds, commingling the money with his personal finance and using some amounts of money from the ICO for unrelated expenses.
It is worth noting that Stollery pleaded guilty to one count of security fraud in July 2022, admitting the mentioned accusations. The charges brought against Stollery carried a maximum of 20 years in prison. However, the court shortened the sentence.
SEC has taken up more cases of illegal crypto-related activities. Most recently, SEC filed a lawsuit against Tron founder Justin Sun and several celebrities, including YouTuber Jake Paul and actress Lindsay Lohan.
