All of the celebs who backed Centra Tech's scam from Netflix's wild new Bitcoin documentary
If you haven't already heard of Netflix's latest true-crime documentary, Bitconned, you're about to.
It's set to land on our screens on January 1, and follows the wild story of Centra Tech - a cryptocurrency firm that turned out to be a total scam.
The trailer seems to be narrated by Ray Trapani, one of the company's co-founders, who all worked 'to scam millions from investors and bankroll lavish lifestyles', Netflix says.
Advert
And it turns out that some famous faces are actually involved in this story too.
Back in 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it had settled charges against boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr and music producer DJ Khaled, 'for failing to disclose payments they received for promoting investments in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)'.
Essentially what happened is the SEC found the two celebrities didn't tell people they were being paid to promote Centra Tech when they posted about it on social media.
Mayweather was paid $100,000 by Centra Tech, while Khaled was paid $50,000 - with the Miami-based DJ calling the company a 'game changer' on his social media accounts.
According to the SEC: 'Without admitting or denying the findings, Mayweather and Khaled agreed to pay disgorgement, penalties and interest.
"Mayweather agreed to pay $300,000 in disgorgement, a $300,000 penalty, and $14,775 in prejudgment interest. "Khaled agreed to pay $50,000 in disgorgement, a $100,000 penalty, and $2,725 in prejudgment interest."
The two also agreed to a ban on promoting any securities - Mayweather for three years, and Khaled for two.
"These cases highlight the importance of full disclosure to investors," said enforcement division co-director Stephanie Avakian at the time. "With no disclosure about the payments, Mayweather and Khaled's ICO promotions may have appeared to be unbiased, rather than paid endorsements."
Centra Tech claimed to offer cryptocurrency-related financial products - including the 'Centra Card', a debit-style card that was meant to allow users to spend their crypto money anywhere that accepted Visa or Mastercard payments.
The problem was, it was all a fraud - the company had no relationship with Visa or Mastercard, and in 2018 the three co-founders were charged with 'conducting a fraudulent and unregistered initial coin offering through Centra Tech Inc., an entity they controlled, that raised over $32 million by selling "CTR tokens" to investors', according to the SEC.