The US Department of Justice announced that the founder of the Oyster Pearl cryptocurrency project, Amir Bruno Elmaani, has been charged with operating a tax evasion scheme for millions of dollars and was arrested. The 28-year old Elmaani is charged with two counts of tax evasion, each carrying up to five years in prison.
Oyster Pearl Founder Charged And Arrested
The protocol, launched several years ago, was advertised as a digital data-storage platform employing the IOTA blockchain to store information. The founder, who went under the name Bruno Block in the online space, used the ICO craze in late 2017 to conduct a token sale that ran from October to November 2017.
In the following months, however, reports started emerging, alleging that Oyster Pearl is a fraudulent project. They asserted that only Elmaani had the authority to print new PRL tokens, despite claiming that the total supply is fixed at nearly 100,000,000.
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Oyster Pearl’s creator filed a tax return in 2017 stating that his income was about $15,000, and failed to report any funds to the IRS in 2018. However, he spent $1,6 million at a carbon fiber composite company, over $700,000 to purchase two homes, and over $10 million to buy multiple yachts
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