The meteoric rise and subsequent fall of cryptocurrency has become one of the most interesting stories in the world of modern finance. “Bitconned,” Netflix‘s newest true-crime film, goes deep into the world of cryptocurrency fraud and shines a light on one of the first big scams that shook the crypto community. The documentary promises to be an exciting look into the Centra Tech affair and the people who were involved in the lies. tvacute delves into the details.
Who is Ray Trapani?
Raymond Trapani was a name that was known in the Bitcoin world for both big dreams and dishonest behavior. Ray Trapani’s grandpa William Hagner. Trapani’s personal life is still pretty secret, but “Bitconned” gives us a look into the life of a man who was very important in one of the first and biggest bitcoin frauds. Trapani’s role in the Centra Tech scandal became the main focus of the program. He was described as a grumpy thirtysomething.
Before the fall, Trapani’s LinkedIn page showed that he was a professional with a wide range of skills. Besides being CEO of Miami Exotics, a company that rents out expensive cars, he was also a General Foreman at Safeway Atlantic. With “Bitconned,” however, the story grows clearer that Trapani’s goals changed, bringing him into the world of cryptocurrency scams during the 2017 Bitcoin boom. Along with his friends, Trapani set out to take advantage of the cryptocurrency market because they wanted to live a fancy life.
What was Centra Tech?
Centra Tech was a cryptocurrency company that started up in 2016. It said it would make new financial products, like the Centra Card, which is a revolutionary debit card. The business said that people would be able to use cryptocurrencies to buy things with regular money. Centra Tech got a lot of attention with a strong marketing effort, endorsements from famous people, and rumors of partnerships with big banks like Bancorp, Visa, and Mastercard. Later investigations showed that Centra Tech’s top team was made up, that most of the licenses weren’t real, and that the partnerships that were said to exist weren’t real. In 2017, the company’s initial coin offering (ICO) raised about $25 million. This caused a major fraud scandal that showed how dishonest people can be in the cryptocurrency world.
Centra Tech Scam
The Centra Tech scam was about a cryptocurrency company called Centra Tech that said its well-known debit card, the Centra Card, would change the way people pay for things. The company was started in 2016 and raised about $25 million through an initial coin offering (ICO). Floyd Mayweather Jr. and DJ Khaled were among the famous people who backed Centra Tech, and the company also advertised relationships with big banks.
However, investigations showed that Centra Tech’s top team, partnerships, and licenses were mostly made up. Investors were lied to by the company about its goods and connections, such as the existence of a fake CEO named Michael Edwards who had over 20 years of business experience and a Harvard MBA, and its supposed partnerships with Bancorp, Visa, and Mastercard. Along with fake licenses and agreements, the fake team was a big part of tricking investors.
Co-founders like Ray Trapani were charged with plotting to commit securities fraud and wire fraud because of the scam. Fines, supervised release, and the seizure of fraud profits were all part of the legal process. The Centra Tech case was a turning point in the regulation of cryptocurrencies because it showed how dangerous and harmful fraud can be in the ICO field.
Centra Tech Trial
Centra Tech’s dishonesty was proven in court, showing how bad the company’s actions were. Ray Trapani, along with his co-founders Sam Sohrab Sharma and Robert Joseph Farkas, were charged with securities fraud and bank fraud in April 2018.
The charges came from a plot to get investors by making false claims about Centra Tech’s goods and relationships with reputable financial institutions that didn’t exist. Together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Southern District of New York of the U.S. Department of Justice looked into the Bitcoin scam and charged the people who did it.
As part of his guilty plea, Ray Trapani admitted to the dishonest actions that led to the fake ICO. The court case showed the complicated schemes that the founders of Centra Tech used, such as making fake leaders, fake licenses, and misleading marketing.
Robert Joseph Farkas, one of the co-founders, was given a jail sentence of one year and one day in December 2020. He was also fined and had his property taken away. The lawsuits against the Centra Tech team were a big deal in the world of cryptocurrency regulation. They showed that scams in the ICO area would not go unpunished.
As part of the probe, 100,000 Ether units from Centra Tech were taken, which are worth about $33.4 million. From the sales of digital tokens, these funds were given by the US Marshals Service to scam victims in early 2021 to help pay them back.
William Hagner is the name of Ray Trapani’s grandpa. After Ray Trapani and his coworker Sam Sharma got into legal trouble and quit their jobs at Centra Tech at the end of October, William Hagner took over as CEO of the company. According to reports, William Hagner was the president of Miami Exotics, a Florida-based luxury car rental business. He became involved with Centra Tech after the company’s founders quit because of legal problems.
Where is Ray Trapani Now?
People started to wonder where Ray Trapani was after the Centra Tech scam and the court cases that followed became public. Trapani was found guilty of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud and had to deal with the repercussions of his actions.
Trapani didn’t have to spend any more time in prison because he had already spent some time. He was, however, given three years of monitored release, which began at the same time on all counts. In addition, Trapani had to pay fines of almost $3 million for his part in the cryptocurrency theft. This was a big financial hit for him.
As of the most recent details, Ray Trapani hasn’t been seen in public much since he quit Centra Tech while the legal processes were going on. Ray Trapani lives in Florida right now. He is in his early 30s. The last thing we learn about him in the program is that he wants to start a business called Cambridge & Brown. Its main goal will be to “lend money to ‘people in need’ at 50% interest.” Trapani is as star “Bitconned,” a documentary made by Bryan Storkelavailable on Netflix. This is because he was involved in the Centra Tech scam and is now facing legal consequences. This documentary tells from Trapani’s point of view what happened with the cryptocurrency fraud and the court problems that followed.
