Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS) has pled guilty to a securities fraud of over $21 million crypto scam. The US Department of Justice had announced that Michael Alan Stollery, CEO and Founder of Titanium Blockchain has declared himself guilty of the $21 million initial coin offering (ICO) scam.
Michael, who is from California had accepted that he falsified details around the BAR coin, which is a crowdfunding token that wasn’t registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The court documents claim that Michael had endorsed TBIS as a cryptocurrency opportunity.
He had attracted investors to purchase the BAR token or coin which was offered by TBIS’s ICO through many false and deceptive claims. After he pled guilty to the securities fraud, Michael shall be facing jail time of up to 20 years.
The sentencing has been scheduled for November 18 at a federal district court. Titanium ICO has swindled investors in the United States and in other parts of the globe up until the SEC halted the offering after pushing out a court order in May 2018.
Titanium Defrauded Crypto Investors By Promoting False Links With Apple, Boeing And IBM
Michael Stollery had launched TBIS as a new company and endorsed the coin with many false claims and intentions. It also marketed untrue and non-existent relationship with companies such as Apple, Boeing and IBM.
It was so that some of the partners had complained and Stollery simply replied by stating, “I did not know that a procedure would need to have been followed, etc.” Titanium Blockchain has also offered many of these supposedly trademarked services for which it has never registered.
The list of these non-trademarks comprise of absurd terms such as “company as a service”, this term has however been used outside of blockchain scams too. Michael too admitted that he made untrue claims about the aspects of Titanium ICO’s whitepaper. Along with faking client testimonials, he even stated that Titanium has business relationship with the Federal Reserve.
Suggested Reading | Mercado Bitcoin, A Brazilian Crypto Exchange, To Expand Into Mexico
Detailed Lies About The Offering’s Profitability
The Department of Justice stated that the CEO has admitted to enticing investors by advertising false aspects of white papers included selling wrong explanations of the crypto investment offering.
These explanations included selling fake and untrue claims about the purpose and technology behind the offering.
Along with that TBIS continued stating a fictitious unique selling point of the ICO in comparison to other crypto opportunities and prospects.
Titanium Blockchain had signed up a minimum of 75 people who had paid cash and more people who opted payment through crypto. The ones that paid with crypto apparently gave close to $21 million.
Out of this amount, at least $200,000 had directly hit the CEO’s bank account.
Not just operating an unregistered ICO, CEO of Titanium blockchain had accepted to have used the investor funds to settle credit card bills for his Hawaii condominium.
Related Reading | Layer One Blockchain Startup 5ire Raised $100 Million, Joins Unicorn Club
Featured image from UnSplash, chart from TradingView.com
