Michael Alan Stollery, the founder and CEO of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), pleaded guilty in July 2022 to a single count of securities fraud against the United States government. The charge is related to an ongoing cryptocurrency scheme where Mr. Stollery purposely falsified documents, misled investors, and failed to register his Initial Coin Offering (ICO) with the appropriate authorities. Stollery was finally sentenced late last month to a total of 51 months in prison. This is one of several different cryptocurrency scams exposed during the last three years. According to the FBI, people lost more than $10 billion to online scams in 2022. Even massively successful trading platforms like FTX have collapsed and been exposed for their fraudulent practices. And the founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, too, faces criminal charges like securities fraud and money laundering. The scope of the TBIS fraud scheme wasn’t as large as FTX but Stollery was still able to swindle a significant amount of money, $21 million, from domestic and international investors. Stollery used a combination of misleading claims, fictional testimonials, and falsified white papers to entice investors. Those investors would then purchase the unregistered ICO coin, “BARs.” Many of the deceptive tactics used by Stollery are also used by dozens of other ongoing cryptocurrency scams. For example, he would use convoluted and overly technical jargon to explain how the TBIS cryptocurrency was different from similar scams. The information in his white papers incorrectly explained the technology behind the coin and the overall purpose of the offering. He also lied about the potential profitability of the coin.
Full story : Titanium Blockchain CEO is Sentenced in Cryptocurrency Scheme.
