Things are quickly going from bad to worse for the Centra ICO. While it’s a well-known project with celebrity backing, the team running the show has a lot of explaining to do. Three of the co-founders have been charged with fraud despite raising $32 million through the initial coin offering.

The Centra Plot Thickens Again

In the world of initial coin offerings, it is impossible to determine which projects should be trusted. While anything with a huge marketing machine behind it is well worth avoiding, that isn’t how most people perceive this industry. As long as a project claims to have major support from celebrities or others, it is automatically legitimate in the eyes of the public.

Many people assumed Centra would turn out to be a legitimate project. With Floyd Mayweather Jr. openly promoting the project on social media, many were interested in what the team had to offer. As such, the project was able to raise $32 million in short order. That’s a positive development, but it remains highly unlikely anything will ever come of this initiative.

Two of the Centra creators have been charged with fraud by the SEC in recent weeks. That list has now grown to include the third creator of the Centra ICO as well. Ray Trapani faces the same charges as his two colleagues, as Centra’s initial coin offering remains shrouded in mystery and confusion.

It seems the SEC has uncovered evidence linking the three co-founders to text messages about distributing fake documents. If discovered, they planned to blame freelancers for submitting misleading material. This clear intent to defraud investors is not something to be taken lightly, as it is evident there is nothing honest about Centra and its ICO.

One could argue Trapani should have been indicted along with the other two co-founders all those weeks ago. For some reason, that did not happen. It is possible Trapani managed to hide his tracks a lot better than the others, although we won’t know for sure until the SEC completes its thorough investigation. Either way, this is a very disturbing development for a project raising $32 million from investors who hardly conducted due diligence.

It is evident the Centra team never had any intention of creating the technology they so actively promoted. Anyone involved in this project, either through promoting, vetting, or otherwise, has – perhaps unwillingly – abetted this criminal project in one way or another. For those who invested in this ICO, getting their money back will prove to be rather difficult, for obvious reasons.