Ryan Felton, a film producer, based in Atlanta, has pled guilty to charges that indicate he operated a cryptocurrency scheme that resulted in the theft of more than $2.5 million from cryptocurrency investors.
The film producer, indicted in the United States for his activities around the cryptocurrency projects Flik and CoinSpark, reported that the film producer confessed guilt four days into the hearings. The trial is currently ongoing.
According to a news release by the United States Department of Justice, Felton is facing various counts, including money laundering, wire fraud, and securities fraud.
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Fraud through 2017 Initial Coins Offering
According to statements made by United States Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan in a press release, Felton’s fraudulent operation began in 2017 with the spike in initial coin offering activity.
The producer is accused of taking advantage of the widespread interest in cryptocurrencies that existed at the time to promote an initial coin offering (ICO) for FLiK. He allegedly told victims who were unaware of the project’s true nature that FLiK would compete with and possibly even overtake the dominant streaming service, Netflix.
After Felton erroneously linked FLiK to a well-known US rapper and actor and misrepresented the individual as a co-owner, the public sale of the coin attracted a lot of attention and generated a lot of interest.
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Additionally, he lied about FLiK having a distribution relationship with the United States military as well as content licensing agreement with a major Hollywood studio. After that, he conned investors out of approximately $2.4 million from FLiK, and then he stole further funds from CoinSpark. This crypto exchange had collected more than $200,000 from investors, and he transferred those assets into his account.
Extravagant way of life
The prosecution claims that Felton used the money to fund his “extravagant lifestyle,” which included purchasing a home for $1.5 million that was paid for in a cash transaction. In addition, he shelled over $180,000 for a 2007 Ferrari 599 GTB, $58,250 for a Chevrolet Tahoe, and $30,000 for a collection of diamond jewelry.
“The defendant used 21st century technology to perpetrate an age-old fraud: lying to investors in order to steal their money and pay his own luxurious lifestyle,” Buchanan said. “This crime involves lying to investors in order to steal their money and fund his own expensive lifestyle.”
He feels that others who are likely to explore such routes of acquiring money from investors will be dissuaded from doing so due to Felton’s belief.
According to the Department of Justice’s news statement, Felton, 48 years old, is awaiting sentencing.
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