TechFlow News, February 11: According to The Block, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced today that Braden John Karony, former CEO of SafeMoon US LLC, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for cryptocurrency fraud. The court also ordered the forfeiture of approximately $7.5 million in funds and two residential properties.
According to prosecutors, the 29-year-old Karony abused his authority as CEO to illegally divert roughly $9 million in cryptocurrency assets from SafeMoon’s liquidity pool for personal expenditures—including purchasing a $2.2 million residence in Utah, an Audi R8 sports car, a Tesla vehicle, and a custom Ford F-550 truck, among other luxury items.
SafeMoon once achieved a market capitalization exceeding $8 billion in 2021. Its trading mechanism imposed a 10% fee, with part of those fees originally pledged to be locked in the liquidity pool to protect investors’ interests. In May of this year, Karony was convicted by a federal jury on charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
