Tech
Who is Ray Trapani and where is he now?
GET-RICH-QUICK programs are nothing new to the American public, fascinated by the rise and fall of ordinary citizens trying to achieve their version of the American dream.
Ray Trapani was one of these individuals, whose involvement was massive cryptocurrency The scheme is the subject of a future article Netflix true crime documentaryBitconnected.
Ray Trapani, shown here holding a wad of cash in his youth, made millions from his involvement in cryptocurrency firm Centra TechCredit: Netflix
Who is Ray Trapani?
Little is known about Ray Trapani’s background, but as the star of the upcoming Netflix documentary, Bitconned, audiences are sure to get a closer look at one of the faces behind a cryptocurrency with.
According to his LinkedInBefore co-founding Centra Tech, Ray Trapani was CEO of Miami Exotics, a luxury car rental dealership.
He also served as a general team leader at Safeway Atlantic from January 2011 to October 2014.
The “businessman”, now in his thirties, resides in Florida.
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In the mid-2010s, Trapani claimed he wanted to get rich and live a lavish lifestyle.
To do so, he tells Netflix he knew he had to “perfect the system” somehow, and decided to take advantage of the Bitcoin boom.
Only a few years later everything collapsed, when in April 2018 Trapani was arrested and accused of securities fraud and wire fraud crimes.
As reported by Department of JusticeAssistant U.S. Attorney Robert Khuzami said, “As alleged, Raymond Trapani conspired with his co-defendants to lure investors with false claims about their products and the relationships they had with credible financial institutions.”
“Although investing in virtual currencies is legal, lying to deceive investors is not,” he added.
Second City center printTrapani was formally charged with four counts, including:
- One charge of conspiracy to commit financial fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of five years in prison
- One count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison
- One case of securities fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison; AND
- A case of wire fraud, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison.
Trapani pleaded guilty to the charges.
He was convicted of each count but did not have to serve further prison time due to a credit for time already served.
Trapani was, however, sentenced to three years’ probation, “to run concurrently on all counts”.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of nearly $3 million.
Trapani has reportedly spoken openly about his involvement in the cryptocurrency with in Bitconned, giving viewers an inside look at what went on behind the scenes at Centra Tech fraud.
What was Centra Tech?
According to his LinkedIn pageCentra Tech was a software development company founded in 2016.
The cryptocurrency and trading organization was based in You love me Beach, Florida.
The organization said it has “developed platforms that connect global trade and cryptocurrencies.”
One such development was the Centra Card, which worked much like any other debit cardallowing “cardholders to spend their cryptocurrencies on all fiat currency transactions.”
The company said its CCE (Current Conversion Engine) module would “allow customers to convert their blockchain assets into market-value fiat to achieve near-perfect exchange rates.”
This, in turn, would create “a real bridge to the world and cryptocurrencies.”
Centra Tech was founded by Sohrab “Sam” Sharma, Robert Joseph Farkas and Raymond Trapani.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New Yorkthe three falsely claimed that their start-up “had developed cutting-edge, fully functional cryptocurrency financial products.”
Sharma and Trapani had previously met while working for Miami Exotics.
As reported by Boccadutri, the company’s investors were essentially tricked into purchasing “unregistered shares in the form of digital tokens.”
According to the Department of Justice, the company’s alleged partnerships with Bancorp, VisaAND MasterCard they also made them appear more legitimate, as they appeared to be “authorized” to issue Centra Cards to consumers “with Visa or Mastercard approval.”
A 2021 survey by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that Centra never had those comfortable partnerships, nor was it licensed to operate in the United States.
The investigation also uncovered the truth behind Centra Tech’s executive team and CEO, Michael Edwards, a so-called Harvard alumnus with over 20 years of industry experience banking world.
Neither Edwards nor the executive team ever existed: their stories, backgrounds and skills were entirely fictitious creations developed by the three founding members of the start-up, as stated in a document Justice.gov Press release.
The former blockchain project, which dealt with popular cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, LitecoinAND Rippleamong others, is now defunct.
The startup’s website is no longer accessible, and in early 2021 the United States Marshals Service “sold the seized Ether units for approximately $33.4 million” to reimburse victims of the Centra Tech fraud.
Sam Sharma (left), Ray Trapani (center) and Robert Farkas (right) were the three co-founders of Centra Tech, the startup behind a cryptocurrency schemeCredit: Netflix
Where is Ray Trapani now?
Ray Trapani will star in Bitconned, directed by Bryan Storkel, which will debut on the Netflix streaming platform on January 1, 2024.
Storkel is best known for directing the 2011 documentary Holy Rollers: The True Story of Card Counting Christians and for producing 2018’s The Legend of Cocaine Island, another Netflix original documentary.
According to Netflixthe true crime documentary is about “three individuals [who] exploit the freewheeling cryptocurrency market to swindle millions from investors and bankrolls [their] lavish lifestyles.”
In the documentary, Ray himself “guides viewers through the ups and downs of his dramatic journey, along with his family, his former friends and the journalist who exposed Centra Tech as the first high-profile fraud case of the cryptocurrency era “.
The other two co-founders of Centra Tech were also charged for their involvement in the operation cryptocurrency scheme.
In December 2020, Robert Joseph Farkas was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for his role in the cryptocurrency scam.
He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, fined nearly $350,000 and ordered to return a Rolex watch purchased with money he earned from the scam.
As reported by Coin Deskon March 5, 2021, Sam Sharma was sentenced to eight years in prison for “conducting an illegal initial coin offering (ICO) that bilked investors out of $25 million.”
Like Farkas, Sharma was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, a $20,000 fine and “ordered to forfeit $36,099,960.”