SafeMoon: CEO of crypto money firm must go to prison for over eight years

In the USA, the former CEO of the crypto money firm SafeMoon has been sentenced to 100 months in prison and ordered to repay approximately 7.5 million US dollars. This was announced by the responsible public prosecutor's office in the Brooklyn district of New York. There, Braden John Karony was found guilty by a jury in May 2025, and the sentence has now been determined. The convicted man lied to investors from all walks of life “to buy mansions, sports cars, and custom trucks,” explains prosecutor Joseph Nocella. In total, the 30-year-old stole more than nine million US dollars “to finance his lavish lifestyle.”

Flight to Russia

SafeMoon was launched in 2021, and the company issued the cryptocurrency of the same name. It was promoted according to the statement mainly with a so-called liquidity pool, which was supposed to enable quick exchanges. This pool was allegedly filled by a 10 percent tax on all transactions with SafeMoon. In reality, however, the CEO and his accomplices helped themselves to the funds and siphoned off millions for themselves. This was concealed with technical measures. The public prosecutor's office lists that, among other things, a house costing 2.2 million US dollars, a sports car for almost 300,000 US dollars, and several other vehicles were purchased with these funds.

The indictment against the three heads of SafeMoon was made public in the fall of 2023. The former chief technology officer pleaded guilty a year ago, and the founder fled to Russia, where he was allegedly defrauded by intelligence agents. SafeMoon had already attracted worldwide attention in the spring of 2023 when the company was stolen the equivalent of almost nine million US dollars. Of this, 80 percent was returned, and the rest was allowed to be kept by the unknown attacker as a “bug bounty.” Before that, there had been repeated allegations of fraud against SafeMoon.

(mho)