Titanium Blockchain Boss Was Knee-Deep In $21M Securities Fraud Case
- The founder and CEO of Titanium Blockchain, Michael Stollery, has pled guilty to an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) scam
- Stollery raised $21 million with the ICO but did not register the ICO regarding TBIS’s cryptocurrency investment offering. with the SEC
The founder and CEO of Titanium blockchain infrastructure Services Inc., Michael Alan Stollery, has recently pleaded guilty in the United States District Court in Los Angeles for his involvement in a fraudulent crypto scheme that allegedly raised around $21 million in an initial coin offering (ICO).
As per the press release by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), 54-years-old Stollery lured investors to purchase a crypto token, BARs issued by his firm, using false claims and misleading statements.
Reseda’s Stollery pleaded guilty to one count of securities fraud on Friday after being charged in June 2022.
Prosecutors alleged that Titanium founder falsified white papers that explained the technology behind the cryptocurrency, embedded false testimonials on the company website, and made up business partnerships to attract investors for his ICO.
“Although he was required to do so, Stollery did not register the ICO regarding TBIS’s cryptocurrency investment offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), nor did he have a valid exemption from the SEC’s registration requirements,”
said the DoJ.
Notably, Stollery raised over $21 million from investors between November 2017 and at least January 2018, the Justice Department revealed.
The guilty plea came into the picture after the SEC’s emergency order that stopped Titanium Blockchain’s ICO and related activities in 2018. At the same time, the court also authorized the appointment of a receiver to hold the firm’s assets and an emergency asset freeze. The Federal Reserve and other well-known companies, including PayPal Holdings Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc., were among the businesses Stollery was accused of lying about having business relationships with.
Andrew Holmes, who represents Stollery in the court, said that the plea was the criminal follow-up to the SEC action. He said that majority of the funds that were converted to crypto are in possession of the receiver and that Stollery always intended to run Titanium as a legitimate business.
The lawyer added that the accused CEO always cooperated with the authorities from the beginning of the case.
“[Michael Alan Stollery] is very remorseful, and he wants to get as much money as possible back to those that put their money in,”
he added.
According to Holmes, Stollery is currently out of custody on signature bail and will be sentenced on November 18. According to the Justice Department, he could serve up to 20 years of imprisonment.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
