The US Securities and Exchange Commission has charged John A. DeSalvo, a former lieutenant with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, with orchestrating a crypto fraud that exclusively targeted police officers and first responders.
The announcement on Aug. 23 revealed that DeSalvo had collected $623,388 from 222 investors by selling his own Blazar token from Nov. 2021 to May 2022.
He claimed that Blazar would offer high returns by replacing the traditional pension systems for public safety workers such as police, firefighters, and paramedics.
However, he lied to the investors by saying that his token was registered with the SEC, even though he never obtained such approval.
He also broke his promise of not selling his tokens during the initial lock-up period for insiders, and dumped 41 billion Blazar tokens worth $51,000 on PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange, in May 2022.
DeSalvo’s sale on PancakeSwap prevented the investors from selling their tokens, while his token’s value plummeted by more than 99.9% in less than two weeks.