US Film Producer Pleads Guilty in US$2.5 Million Crypto Investment Scam Case

Ryan Felton, a film producer from the United States (US) pleaded guilty to a fraud case of crypto investment worth US $ 2.5 million. Felton once helped crypto company Bitpay to create video ads in 2014.

"Ryan Felton has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of wired fraud, securities fraud and money laundering charges on day four of his trial as a result of fraud in the promotion of two crypto investment schemes," said Attorney Ryan K. (21/5/2022).“The defendant was proven to have used information and electronic technology to commit fraud, namely lying to investors to get their money and enrich themselves. This case serves as a warning to anyone who uses new technology and harms others,” the prosecutor said.

According to prosecutors, in 2017, Felton promoted an initial coin offering (ICO) for a new streaming platform, namely Flik. Felton promised that Flik would be able to compete and surpass Netflix's glory.Fake Crypto Investment, Investor's Money for Personal Interest

“To increase public interest in buying the cryptocurrency, Felton told investors that a prominent Atlanta rapper and actor is a co-owner of FLiK. He even claimed that the US military had agreed to institutionally distribute Flik, ​​including mentioning that FLiK is in the process of partnering with major film and television studios. That's not true though. After the ICO was completed, Felton actually sold the Flik crypto for more than 40 million units on the crypto exchange, which caused the price of the crypto to plummet," the prosecutor said.

It was also stated that Felton used the investors' funds from the ICO, about $2.4 million for personal interests, not developing the streaming platform."He spent most of the money buying a Ferrari 599 GTB Fioran Coupe, Chevy Tahoe and diamond jewelry around," prosecutors said.Second ICO, Raise Investor Money of US$200 Thousand

In 2018, Felton is known to promote the second ICO for a crypto exchange company, namely CoinSpark. To attract investors to the ICO, Felton promised that Spark investors would receive 25 percent of the company's profits in the form of dividends.Felton also presented himself as a potential investor, using a false name, on various Internet forums and social media sites to promote CoinSpark.

After the ICO was over and the crypto exchange was up and running, investors started billing Felton's promise of a dividend date. However, after several months of work, Felton has not been able to provide that dividend, citing the crypto exchange experiencing technical problems."From the CoinSpark ICO, Felton managed to collect more than US $ 200,000 and it was all proven to go into his personal account," said the prosecutor again.

According to IMDB, Ryan Felton is a film producer from Atlanta. He has been involved in a number of film productions, such as The Mark of Love, Swamp Murders, Safe, John Doe and others, both as a producer and actor. In 2014 he made a commercial film about crypto for the company Bitpay.