On Tuesday, the federal court in Brooklyn sentenced John DeMarr to 60 months in prison for his role in a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency and securities fraud scheme. The sentencing came after DeMarr pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud in July 2021.
The court also ordered DeMarr to pay more than $3.5 million in forfeiture along with the prison sentence.
According to the court documents, DeMarr was a promoter of several digital asset-related companies. He conspired with others to defraud investors by luring them into their companies, Start Options and B2G, with false and misleading representations.
They promoted Star Options as an online investment platform that provides cryptocurrency mining, trading, and digital asset trading services. At the same time, B2G was touted as an “ecosystem” allowing users to trade B2G tokens, offer staking , and trade digital and fiat currencies. Both these platforms were fraudulent, the US Department of Justice highlighted.
Another Too Good to Be True Scheme
DeMarr and his co-conspirators falsely claimed that the investors’ funds would be invested in digital asset mining and trading platforms, earning massive profits. They even paid for celebrity endorsements. One unnamed actor famous for martial arts films made in the 1980s and 1990s even became a promoter and celebrity spokesperson of the scheme and falsely claimed that B2G could…
