Hollywood Producer Scams $2.5M Crypto

The Department of Justice claimed in a news statement on July 21 that Hollywood producer Felton, who was charged with several charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering, agreed to direct the cash towards financing his luxurious lifestyle.

Notably, the funds were sent to Felton’s account, where he used them to buy a $1.5 million home, a $180,000 Ferrari, a $58,250 Chevy Tahoe, and around $30,000 in diamond jewelry.

The Hollywood producer got the funds by advertising an Initial Coin Offering for a streaming network called FLiK, with the promise that the firm would exceed Netflix.

It’s worth noting that the producer allegedly lied about a popular Atlanta rapper and actor backing the project as a co-owner in order to attract additional investors. However, the aforementioned rapper was not a member of the project.

Surprisingly, innovators were led to believe that the United States military was also on board, having agreed to disseminate the streaming platform to service personnel.

In addition, during the height of the 2017 ICO boom, the platform claimed to be closing license arrangements with major film and television studios.

In the end, Felton dumped almost 40 million FLiK tokens on trade exchanges, causing the value of FLiK coins to plummet dramatically.

In addition, Felton pushed another ICO for CoinSpark, a cryptocurrency trading exchange, in 2018. He guaranteed Spark coin holders that they would get 25% of the trading exchange’s income in dividends. The corporation was never audited, despite a previous pledge.

Felton was also accused of pretending to be a possible investor on numerous online forums and social media platforms, according to the DOJ.

The 48-year-old is awaiting sentence before U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Boulee after pleading guilty to twelve charges of wire fraud, ten counts of money laundering, and two counts of securities fraud.

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