Since John Karony’s trial started on May 6, US government prosecutors have built their criminal case against the former SafeMoon CEO in bits and pieces.
It has occasionally seemed uncertain whether jurors would be able to draw a clear narrative from testimony by Karony’s confessed co-conspirators, his alleged victims, and expert forensic analysts.
That uncertainty ended this morning with a powerhouse closing statement delivered by Assistant US Attorney Dana Rehnquist, who laid out close to two dozen “material lies” told by Karony to the investing public, most over the course of just a few weeks in early 2021.
The prosecution’s closing remarks followed the defense’s announcement that Karony had chosen not to testify in his own defense. Instead, the prosecution was able to paint a compelling portrait of Karony as a remorseless liar by contrasting blockchain forensics and private messages with starkly contradictory public statements.
The presentation, reviewing existing evidence, included private messages in which Karony guided other SafeMoon insiders to conceal their holdings, while publicly claiming the team held no tokens.
It also included Karony’s public statement that the SafeMoon team was “getting paid a little bit.” In fact, executives had received exorbitant payouts taken directly from the purportedly “locked” SafeMoon liquidity pool on the Pancakeswap DEX.
Karony and confessed co-conspirator Thomas “Papa” Smith were shown, at nearly the same time, privately fantasizing about “castle money” and “Lambos.”
Read more: SafeMoon’s image was carefully curated — and misleading, witness says
Perhaps the most damning exchange highlighted by prosecutors came on March 16, mere weeks after SafeMoon’s public debut and Karony’s assumption of the CEO role.
“Should we be honest with the team about pulling [funds] out of the LP?” read a message from SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy to Karony.
“Let’s draft up a statement,” Karony replied in part. “Thomas [Smith], you and I need to talk about how to massage that properly.”
“This is the conspiracy,” Rehnquist declared.
No such statement, honest or “massaged,” was ever released, and evidence showed Karony continuing to lie for months, even as withdrawals from the liquidity pool accelerated. Between September 2 and December 12 of 2021, according to forensic analysis by a prosecution witness, Karony and company pulled close to $43 million from the pool.
Next up on May 20 will be the defense’s closing, followed by instructions to the jury. Jury deliberation will likely begin Wednesday morning.
