For a very long time, the SEC has been keen on charging the fraudulent companies to court and the latest happens to be the founders of the Centra platform. This arrest comes after the regulatory body claims that they have been involved in a fraudulent scheme which is related to the Initial Coin Offering project. The Centra platform began making headlines in 2017 when award-winning celebrity DJ "DJ Khaled" and world boxing champ "Floyd Mayweather" advertised this platform. The Co-founders of this platform Robert Farkas and Sam Sharma were charged to court by the body for the sale of the platform's CTR token.
A version of the regulatory body's complaint claimed that Raymond Trapani who happens to be another co-founder of the Centra was behind the fraudulent or scam ICO project that was carried out by the platform. The complaint further claimed the platform sold tokens with claims about a non-existing partnership with recognized credit/ debit card companies. The complaint further claimed that Trapani offered prospective investors fictional bios of executives. The regulatory body went further to state that Trapani and Sharma manipulated the trading of CTR tokens in order to generate interest in the platform and also further result to the increased purchase of the token.
This newly discovered complaint released by the SEC states that Trapani has been hereby charged with the violation of anti-fraud provisions of the government and also falling short of the registration process provided by the Federal securities law in the United States. This new complaint reveals that the regulatory body is seeking the permanent shut down of the platform and that the illegal profits made from the sale of the CTR tokens should be returned to the victims. The complaint further appealed to the court to prohibit Raymond Trapani from participating in any form of offering that involves digital tokens as well as other securities or prohibit him from holding or serving as an officer for any public company.
Head of the body's Enforcement Division Robert Cohen stated that they strongly believe that the developers have gone through great discomfort to create this platform. He further stated that they had taken time to create a platform that is a false impression of an advanced and viable one. He went further to add that investors all over the world should be cautious when investing in these digital tokens especially when these supposed platforms offer them higher profits that are too good to be true.
The SEC went further to reveal a text that was sent by Sam Sharma to Trapani and Farkas. This text was in response to a cease and desist order that was issued to the company by a bank ordering them to remove any interference or mention of their institution from all their marketing materials. In response, Sam Sharma told Trapani and Farkas that they have to remove the name of the institution and then blame freelancers for it.