Titanium Blockchain CEO Pleads Guilty To $21 Million Crypto Fundraising Scam

Michael Alan Stollery, the CEO of blockchain company Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), has pleaded guilty to securities fraud over a $21 million cryptocurrency scam. From a report:The California man admitted to falsifying details around the BAR coin, a crowdfunding token that should have -- but wasn't -- registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The TBIS scam was one of many dodgy initial coin offerings, or ICOs, in the late '10s. According to the complaint, between 2017 and 2018, Stollery introduced TBIS as a new company and hyped its coin with a string of elaborate false claims. TBIS touted nonexistent links with companies like Apple, Boeing, and IBM. Some of the "partners" complained, to which Stollery apparently replied, "I did not know that a procedure would need to have been followed, etc." The company also offered a variety of supposedly trademarked services for which it had not registered trademarks. (Perhaps more importantly, the services appear to have not existed, and the business affiliated with TBIS was apparently an IT contractor and equipment reseller.)

This is why the crypto companies

[rsilvergun]

Have been spending money bribing politicians. They were hoping they could get cryptocurrencies declared a commodity by law so that they wouldn't be regulated by the SEC. It doesn't look like they could pull that off. Frankly I don't think they have enough real cash to bribe enough politicians consistently enough. It's not so much that it's expensive to bribe a politician but you're competing with a whole lot of other companies much larger than you but that politician's time.

One of my favorite articles was one where a multi multi-millionaire was complaining because she couldn't get the time of day from a senator anymore because they spent all their time with billionaires.

The thing is we all complain about money in politics but when it's time for us to vote we still pick the candidate with the best ads and the most fun rallies instead of the boring candidates who aren't corrupt.

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY...

[Anonymous Coward]

1849.
1929.
2008.
Greed. Priceless.
Repeat history. Make Greed Great Again.

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. Vote boring, reliable and proud to _not_ be corrupt. Maybe things will get better with them.

One bad apple

[Anonymous Coward]

This guy's going to give kleptocurrencies a bad name.

Ho Hum.

[fredrated]

Another day, another crypto-scam.

Oh No!

[splutty]

Anyway...

Shocked & surprised

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Shocked, I am. Quite shocked. Who'd have ever suspected a crypto-bro of breaking the law?

Its funny

[wakeboarder]

because many of the things that are going on with crypto, happened in the early days of banking, until it got regulated...