Former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony has been found guilty on all criminal counts against him: conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
SafeMoon was a briefly popular project, reaching a maximum market capitalization of approximately one billion dollars before collapsing, according to CoinGecko.
Karony’s misrepresentations to investors in this project included key token mechanics, critically, so-called locked liquidity pools, in his promotion of the token.
Karony and the other SafeMoon leaders withdrew tens of millions of dollars of value from these pools, despite representing them as locked.
Read more: SafeMoon CEO defense claims there was no conspiracy among execs
Karony’s defense was unsuccessful in arguing that there was no conspiracy among the leaders of the scheme.
Thomas Smith, one of the co-conspirators who has already pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government, testified against Karony earlier in the trial.
Smith’s testimony stressed that the leaders of this project were willing to use the liquidity for things that “were not emergencies,” and he described his own moment of corruption after receiving funds that came from the liquidity pool, stating, “I became that monster I was talking about.”
Karony’s sentencing is still to come.
