| Sharma Gets
8 Years With Seized ETH Wallet Eyed By
Claimants New Petition on Restitution
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 4 – Robert Farkas was up
for sentencing on December 15,
on fraud charges related to
crypto-currency. Inner City
Press covered
it.
U.S.
District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Lorna G. Schofield held
the sentencing.
Farkas' lawyer
emphasized that his client
grew up in rural New Jersey
and was not really a tech guy.
He said Farkas
had served 55 days at the
beginning of the case, in
maximum security Federal
facilities in Miami, then
Atlanta, then Oklahoma and
finally the MCC.
Judge
Schofield asked if there were
any victims on the line, and
some beeping and loss of
reception began.
On January 19,
victims filed a claim for some
of the $33 million (100,000
ETH) they say now DOJ is
trying to keep for its Assets
Forfeiture Fund.
Rensel, Yun Hi,
Hao Poon, Fung Poon, Jae J.
Lee, Rodney Warren and Mateusz
Ganczarek requested a hearing
to adjudicated their interest
in a portion of the Victim
Fund and for restitution
instead of forfeiture.
Now on March 4,
Sohrab Sharma got eight years.
Inner City Press live tweeted
it here:
On restitution -
Assistant US Attorney argues
that the claimants will not be
able to show that the Ether /
"Ethereum" in Sharma's wallets
belong to them. But Judge
Schofield seems ready to allow
an amended petition.
Judge Schofield
says new petition seeking the
Ether in Sharma's wallet is
due March 15, Government
opposition by March 22 (and
then a reply). She'll issue a
written decision on the
forfeiture decision.
Judge Schofield:
OK, let's proceed to the
sentencing of Mr. Sharma. I
acknowledge letters from two
of his uncles, his girlfriend,
his future sister in law and
employees, and others
Judge
Schofield: Sharma wants a
downward variance, saying this
his prior crimes were about
substance abuse, not violence.
If I accept that, the bottom
of the guidelines range would
move to 12 years and 7 months
- still substantial.
Assistant
US Attorney: This defendant
received $36 million from his
crimes. He diverted money for
personal expenses, high end
retail purchases.
And here it
is: Sharma has been sentenced
to eight years, followed by
three years of supervised
release and a fine of
$20,000. He was ordered
to forfeit $36,088,960 -
that's the ongoing fight.
Watch this site.
The US
Attorney's Office announced:
Farkas "was sentenced on
December 15 to one year and
one day in prison, in
connection with his
participation in a scheme to
induce victims to invest more
than $25 million dollars’
worth of digital funds in
Centra Tech, Inc. (“Centra
Tech”), a Miami-based company
he co-founded and that
purported to offer
cryptocurrency-related
financial products.
FARKAS previously
pled guilty to conspiring to
commit securities fraud and
wire fraud in connection with
his and his co-conspirators’
use of material
misrepresentations and
omissions to solicit investors
to purchase securities, in the
form of digital tokens issued
by Centra Tech, through an
initial coin offering
beginning in approximately
July 2017." Meanwhile,
more delay in the OneCoin
case...
This case is US
v. Sharma, et al., 18-cr-340
(Schofield)
***
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