Robert Farkas
Co-founder of Centra Tech, the 2017 ICO that raised ~$25–32M on fake executives and fabricated partnerships with Visa/Mastercard. He pleaded guilty to fraud conspiracies and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison.
Also known as: Robert Joseph Farkas
Bio
Robert Farkas co-founded Centra Tech with Sohrab Sharma and Raymond Trapani. Centra's 2017 ICO sold "CTR Tokens" by touting fictitious executives, a nonexistent debit-card product, and fabricated relationships with major card networks. [1][2]
Legal outcome
Farkas pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud and was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to forfeit $347,062 and a Rolex bought with proceeds. [1][2]
Bracketed numbers refer to the numbered sources listed below.
Sources (2)
See also
Luke BelmarIndividualsCryptocurrency influencer Luke Belmar (@lukebelmar on X) became the subject of controversy following allegations related to the promotion of a memecoin. Critics on social media alleged that Belmar used a series of posts referencing a forthcoming cryptocurrency project and a large-scale airdrop to generate interest in a token without explicitly identifying a specific contract address. Belmar published multiple posts discussing an upcoming memecoin, describing plans for what he characterized as a major airdrop and making comparisons to other cryptocurrency projects. Because no contract address was publicly provided, several tokens emerged claiming association with his statements. Critics alleged that this ambiguity enabled speculation around multiple tokens while avoiding a direct endorsement of any particular asset.
HEX / PulseChain (Richard Heart)ProjectsCrypto projects (HEX, PulseChain, PulseX) created by Richard Heart (Richard Schueler). In July 2023 the U.S. SEC sued him for offering unregistered securities that raised $1B+ and for allegedly misappropriating ~$12M for luxury goods (including a 555-carat diamond). A court dismissed the case in 2024 for lack of U.S. jurisdiction; there was no finding of wrongdoing and Heart denies the allegations.
This page was last updated on Jun 15, 2026. View revision history.
