SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony found guilty on all counts
Former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony has been found guilty on all criminal counts against him: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
SafeMoon was a briefly popular project, reaching a maximum market capitalization of approximately $1 billion before collapsing, according to CoinGecko.
Karony’s misrepresentations to investors around the project included claims about key token mechanics, such as apparently locked liquidity pools.
Karony and the other SafeMoon leaders withdrew tens of millions of dollars of value from these pools, despite representing them as locked.
Read more: SafeMoon CEO defense claims there was no conspiracy among execs
The former CEO’s defense was unsuccessful in arguing that there was no conspiracy among the leaders of the scheme.
Thomas Smith, one of the co-conspirators who has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government, testified against Karony earlier in the trial.
Smith’s testimony stressed that the leaders of this project were willing to use the liquidity for things that “were not emergencies,” and he described his own moment of corruption after receiving funds that came from the liquidity pool, stating, “I became that monster I was talking about.”
Karony’s sentencing is still to come.
Following the conviction on all three counts, the jury ruled in favor of the forfeiture of $1.8 million in proceeds from the sale of a home in Lindon, Utah; and the forfeiture of $107,000 that was put towards a down payment on Karony’s parents’ home in North Salt Lake, Utah.
Following the forfeiture decision, government prosecutors in a motion moved to detain Karony ahead of sentencing on the basis that he was a flight risk. Prosecutors cited his international connections to The Gambia and London, as well as co-conspirator Kyle Nagy’s flight to Russia.
Prosecutors further cited $1-$5 million in unaccounted digital assets that might be accessible to Karony.
The court chose to delay the bail hearing until 10AM Thursday May 21.
UPDATE 22:33 UTC, May 21: Added additional information from court.
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