Financial and Investment Fraud

March 4, 2021

Sohrab Sharma, a co-founder of Centra Tech, which claimed to offer products including a debit card that would allow users to make retail purchases using cryptocurrency, has been sentenced to eight years in prison following his guilty plea to charges arising from Centra’s fraudulent representations to participants in its unregistered initial coin offering of “Centra Tokens” or “CTR tokens,” which raised more than $25 million from victims.  Sharma and his co-defendants falsely claimed that Centra Tech had an experienced executive team, agreements with card issuers, and licenses to operate in 38 states when, in fact, Centra Tech had none of these things.  USAO SDNY

March 1, 2021

The SEC has granted two whistleblowers a $500,000 award for providing tips on an ongoing fraud.  The whistleblowers’ substantial assistance led to multiple SEC actions, as well as a related action from another government agency.  SEC

February 25, 2021

The SEC has awarded two whistleblowers two awards totaling more than $1.7 million.  Under the first award, one whistleblower received over $900,000 for providing significant evidence, including a critical declaration, that helped shut down an ongoing fraud scheme.  Under the second award, the whistleblower received over $800,000 for providing important information through an interview and documents that helped return millions to harmed investors.  SEC

February 24, 2021

William Taylor, the former chief operating officer of publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company MiMedx Group, Inc., was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a fine or $250,000 following his jury trial conviction on charges arising from accounting fraud.  The government presented evidence at trial that Taylor authorized the false recognition of revenue upon the shipment of MiMedx products to distributors despite knowing that the GAAP criteria for such revenue recognition had not been met.  Instead, MiMedx had promised the distributors that they could return the product or did not need to pay for it, in some cases knowing that the distributors were unable to pay for the product.  As a result, MiMedx reported materially inflated revenue in 2015.  USAO SDNY

February 24, 2021

Florida man David John Ridling was sentenced to 15 years in prison following his guilty plea on charges that he defrauded five financial institutions, securing over $40 million in loan proceeds and lines of credit, some of which he used to pay amounts to earlier victims.  Ridling, who owned and ran a farm, used fabricated and forged brokerage account statements, financial statements, and tax returns, and impersonated brokerage company personnel to misrepresent his financial condition.  USAO MD FL

February 24, 2021

Leroy King, the former chief of Antigua’s Financial Services Regulatory Commission, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in obstructing the SEC’s investigation into the $7 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by R. Allen Stanford and the Stanford International Bank.  Stanford provided King with cash and luxury gifts, and in exchange King improperly denied his agency’s assistance to the SEC.  DOJ

February 23, 2021

A previous SEC award recipient has been awarded another $9.2 million for contributing to successful related actions arising from the same information.  After receiving the whistleblower’s tip from the SEC, the DOJ was able to bring about additional actions, including a non-prosecution agreement or deferred prosecution agreement.  SEC