In a legal tussle that started as far back as 2018, the CEO of Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS), Michael Alan Stollery was accused of securities fraud by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC went after him, charging him with securities fraud because of the way he his platform handled their Initial Coin Offering (ICO).
The case reached a crescendo this week as Michael finally admitted to one count of securities fraud. The initial coin offering happened between November 2017 and January 2018. It was one of the many less-than-stellar coin offerings that occured during the 2017 cryptocurrency boom.
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a statement that revealed that Michael Stollery has admitted that he falsified some of the information in his project’s whitepaper in order to attract investors in the U.S.A. and the entire world at large.
The statement also revealed that some of the testimonials on the project’s website were false as well as some of the content that claimed that the platform had working relationships with the Federal Reserve and several other unnamed companies. All of this was done to provide Titanium Blockchain with a false appearance of legitimacy.
The Initial Coin Offering (ICO) raised about $21 Million in Bitcoin, Ether and cash for Titanium Blockchain and it’s native token, BAR. This figure would have been much lower without the shenanigans that Michael and his team pulled.
The money crimes did not also end there. Further investigation by the SEC and Department of Justice confirmed that Stollery also diverted user funds to pay for his personal expenses which included personal credit card bills and the lease for his Hawaiian condominium.
The SEC also confirmed that Michael Stollery did not properly register his platform’s ICO with the financial regulator. The defendant however pleased guilty to only one count of securities fraud. Michael’s sentence is set for 18th November 2022. If convicted, he might be facing up to 20 years in prison according to the law but the guilty plea he took means it is unlikely that his sentence will carry the full weight of the law
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