The Founder And Boss Of Titanium Infrastructure Services (TBIS) Uses Investor Funds To Pay Credit Card Bills. The founder and CEO of crypto firm Titanium Blockchain Infrastructure Services (TBIS) is facing 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a fraud scheme worth USD 21 million or around Rp. 314.8 billion.
Michael Alan Stollery, 54, of Reseda, California, touted the company as a cryptocurrency investment opportunity and lured investors into buying “BARs,” cryptocurrency tokens or coins during Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), through a series of false and misleading statements.
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Additionally, Stollery admits he mixes investor money from the ICO proceeds with his own funds and uses some of it for things like paying credit cards and paying bills for his Hawaii condo.
Stollery pleaded guilty last week in the Central District of California, admitting to falsifying the company’s crypto project white paper.
The document offers investors and potential investors an explanation of the cryptocurrency investment offering, including the purpose and technology behind the offering, how the offering differs from other cryptocurrency opportunities, and the profitability prospects of the offering.
“TBIS intends to disrupt today’s market leaders in the provisioning and virtualization space. Return on Investment (ROI) will be achieved much faster than with traditional cloud-based solutions,” reads the company’s white paper, quoted from Yahoo Finance, Thursday (28/28/2011). 7/2022).
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Stollery also posted false client testimonials on the TBIS website and falsely claimed he had business relationships with the Federal Reserve (the Fed) and dozens of leading companies to create a false display of legitimacy.
Previously, US Senator Elizabeth Warren again expressed her opinion regarding crypto assets. This time he said, too many crypto companies are not shy and able to deceive customers.
He also stressed the need for stronger regulations, urging the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Congress to take action against crypto regulation.
“Congress needs to act, but the SEC has a responsibility to use its authority to put in place fences and crack down on crypto actors who break the rules,” Warren said.
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“I have sounded the alarm bell in crypto and the need for stronger rules to protect consumers and financial stability,” the senator added.
Last week, crypto lender Celsius Network filed for bankruptcy protection after freezing withdrawals. A week earlier, another crypto lender, Voyager Digital, filed for bankruptcy protection. Likewise the crypto company Three Arrows Digital.
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce previously expressed concern in May to the securities watchdog regarding crypto handling.
“We can go after fraud and we can play a more positive role on the innovation side, but we have to do it, we have to get to work. I haven’t seen us want to do that work so far,” he argues.
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SEC chairman Gary Gensler has also been criticized for taking an enforcement-centric approach to crypto regulation. In May, the securities watchdog said it would double its enforcement division’s crypto unit. Last week, Gensler outlined what investors can expect from the SEC in the area of crypto regulation.
The Founder And Boss Of Titanium Infrastructure Services (TBIS) Uses Investor Funds To Pay Credit Card Bills. Senator Warren has pressured Gensler to step up crypto surveillance on several occasions. In July last year, he warned about the increasing risks of cryptocurrency trading, asking securities regulators to use their full authority to address these risks.
Earlier, the UK central bank’s deputy governor for financial stability, Sir Jon Cunliffe, warned cryptocurrencies are highly vulnerable to sentiment and have the potential to collapse. He urged regulators to “get on with the work” and regulate crypto immediately.
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“Financial assets with no intrinsic value are only worth what the next buyer will pay. Therefore they are inherently volatile, highly vulnerable to sentiment and prone to collapse,” said Cunliffe quoted from Bitcoin.com, Tuesday (19/7/2022).
He describes some crypto assets as purely speculative, unsupported, stating bitcoin, for example, has nothing behind it. He also repeated his previous warning that if one invests in crypto assets, one should be prepared to lose all the money.
The UK central bank added that the recent volatility in the crypto market does not pose a risk to the financial system as a whole, as cryptocurrencies are not sufficiently integrated into other financial systems.
However, Cunliffe stressed that the boundaries between crypto and traditional financial systems will become “more and more blurred”.
He said, without action, systemic risks will arise, especially if crypto activity and its relationship with other banks and markets continue to grow. He stressed regulators need to “get on with the work” and bring crypto within the “regulatory perimeter.”
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“The interesting question for regulators is not what will happen next with the value of crypto assets, but what we need to do to ensure prospective innovations can occur without incurring increases and potential systemic risks,” said Cunliffe.
The Founder And Boss Of Titanium Infrastructure Services (TBIS) Uses Investor Funds To Pay Credit Card Bills. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard also said last week crypto financial systems are “vulnerable to the same risks” as traditional finance.
“Future financial resilience will be greatly enhanced if we ensure regulatory boundaries span the crypto financial system and reflect the principles of equal risk, equal disclosure, equal regulatory returns,” Brainard said at the time.
Last week, the Governor of the UK’s central bank, Andrew Bailey also told UK lawmakers that cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value, warning that unbacked crypto assets are “very high risk.”
