Safemoon CTO admits fraud in $200M scandal

Thomas Smith, the former CTO of the $8 billion Safemoon project, confessed on Thursday to charges of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and electronic funds transfer. This case is one of the most notorious fraud schemes in the cryptocurrency sector that led to the project's bankruptcy. Safemoon was launched in 2021 by Smith and his colleagues John Karony and Kyle Nagy, offering the SFM token with a burning mechanism and a 10% transaction tax. Despite initial success, it was revealed that the founders had stolen $200 million from the company, resulting in fraud charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). While Smith and Karony fought the allegations, Nagy fled to Russia. Smith's confession may indicate a plea deal with prosecutors. Recently, the VGX Foundation acquired the Safemoon project and launched a new meme coin to compensate the victims.