Crypto firm co-founder to plead guilty in celebrity-touted scam

The third co-founder of a cryptocurrency firm plans to plead guilty to duping investors into putting more than $25 million in an initial coin offering the company promoted with the help of celebrities including boxer Floyd Mayweather and musician D J Khaled. Sohrab “Sam” Sharma, co-founder of Centra Tech Inc., agreed to change his plea. Sharma had been scheduled to go to trial in November. Centra Tech’s other co-founders, Robert Farkas and Raymond Trapani, already pleaded guilty to charges that they misled investors by claiming to have developed a debit card allowing purchases with digital currency at any business accepting Visa or Mastercard. Mayweather and Khaled agreed to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission that they failed to disclose they’d been paid for promoting the firm.