There has been silence for over 3 months, silence that has been forced upon us. It’s unfortunate that the SEC has acted the way it has because it has affected thousands of Centra users worldwide. When the events in April occurred our employees inevitably left, and refused to make any statements for their own interest. Now that we have the opportunity we want to shed some light on the events that happened, to an extent because this is an on-going legal battle at this point and some information is sensitive to the case. We want to voice the truth and move on from this into our next phase.
We allege, think, and/or believe that the comments from SEC Chief of Enforcement, Robert Cohen, regarding our technology are down right wrong. Yes SEC, we actually did create cutting edge technology…
We had been working with the SEC since November 2017 and was told that it was a non-public order and we actually tried to refund the ICO multiple times through the SEC. Since it’s public now, we are going to use our freedom of press and speech here. When we first received the subpoena we weren’t required to do much but submit documentation and ensure them Centra wouldn’t touch the ICO Funds we had in our current control at the time, which we complied. The bottom line, aside from everything else, is that we didn’t use those funds when the SEC contacted us and we were cooperating with them on production of documents and for a resolution of the matter that wouldn’t have caused collateral damage to the rest of the world.
We began producing documentation to show them the relationships we had with our processors at the time, one processor who was supposed to issue our branded Visa cards domestically, and one processor that was going to issue our white-label MasterCard worldwide (the black cards that ICO contributors have gotten since Dec 2017..that actually worked unlike the false statements made). The processor we had to issue our branded US based Visa cards had told us since on or around August of 2017 we were “all good to go,” sent us contracts and term sheets, etc. We had other solutions we were working with on processors in Europe and issuers but our focus was the branded approach with the US issuer. The processor who was going to issue us MasterCards internationally sent us documentation to finalize on or around September, which we ended up executing and delivering on. The fact that he says we lied about our technology in their press releases are flat out wrong.
Centra’s Card Managing System can work with any card in this planet that has online access. We created a proprietary conversion engine that uses a multi-level connection method that can let the average person even make his own debit card a real-time crypto card powered by our system. It all worked, we had an issuing agreement to issue our cards, and we delivered hundreds of Centra Cards worldwide in December to users whom connected it to their wallet and began to use it wherever MasterCard was accepted. That’s the truth, and no matter what anyone tries to say to make it seem like it wasn’t, the truth always prevails.
Just know something, in a US federal regulator system, people get promoted for their work and enforcement. Look at Valerie Szczepanik for example. She was working with us as a supervisor lead in our investigation since November of 2017, and after our events, a little thereafter she got promoted. We allege and hypothesize their agenda here is for their own self benefit rather the real protection of the people. We had offered them in multiple separate occasions to refund ICO contributors, through our corporate outside counsel, they refused every time. We gave them options for a full recession in ETH. That means users would of gotten their full ETH BACK! Doing that would of protected secondary markets and secondary buyers, which was Centra’s goal at all times because we knew through blockchain data some ICO Contributors had already sold their tokens. We wanted to protect the people from any other form of action that would cause a ripple effect, like the one they have done now, which destroyed people’s funds. We had already developed our technology, paid for a large quantity of cards to issue, we were okay of returning ICO funds we still had under our control and continue some type of operation. We had hired a full experienced executive team to run the company. We did everything to make sure we delivered exactly what we promised.
The fact that they say we lied about people being able to spend cryptocurrencies is a lie in itself. We allege and hypothesize that they knew that we could because of the items we produced to our law firm who was then supposed to produce it to the SEC. One time they denied our refund method, they said a recession is impossible because it was another unregistered sale.(Our lawyers didn’t get it and ETH was over $600 at the time roughly a $54M refund). Another time they said their investigation is currently on-going and that it was not possible to unwind the ICO because of tokens being distributed (we brought up the Munchie ICO and ETH was over $1,100 at that time which would of equated to over $100,000,000 refund), then finally we came up with another proposal which was going to them first week of April, but that never happened because of the events that occurred.
We stressed multiple times throughout the investigation that doing anything else would cause economic harm to users worldwide, collateral damage that was unfair to users. This damage isn’t fair to a company and it’s users. If they had issues with the original founders there was ways to handle it that would of protected the market and contributors. We already had begun delivering what we sold to users in the bargain of our ICO and that we wanted to work with them in a way to protect people, not harm. The Wallet was developed and available, Cards were being sent out, our blockchain was going to be released in Q1 to release our Centrachain and our reward programs. The announcement of the blockchain was supposed to be done in Korea.
We were doing everything we promised in our sale. What kind of scam is that where a company actually is doing what they are saying in all aspects of the ICO and leaves 91,000 ETH untouched? You be the judge…
Fast forward to the DOJ’s events and what we believe forced the knee jerk reaction to cause the SEC to then file it’s actions. We believe that the FBI has learned from FINRA, allegations that were being made to make the founders look like they were trying to skip the country. We believe the employee lied to FINRA saying that she was just aware of the SEC investigation in February, when she was involved in conference calls since January at her time of hire. We believe she told FINRA that Robert asked her about extradition via email when he really just asked her about the song “Diplomatic Immunity,” by Drake in person when it came out and no email that she claims was sent was actually ever sent (And we had email archiving turned on for the SEC to capture any email to verify that).
Then she said we virtually fired everyone except the founders, which was also a lie. We had downsized our Customer Service and IT Staff so that we could continue utilizing fractional cost employees worldwide. We had a large number of international employees. She said we had emptied our bank accounts yet we had just deposited another check into our operational account. Then their was a flight arrangement to go to Deconomoy for the April 2nd-3rd event we were sponsoring that was scheduled to leave April 1st. We believe the way the employee in our office made it seem to FINRA was that we fired everyone, talked about extradition, and were fleeing the country with the money apparently…. We believe, because of that, the FBI and DOJ felt a need to rush in, instead of really continuing their investigation and letting us handle the situation with the SEC.
They arrested the founders and we believe the SEC was then forced to file actions. We will continue to use the word “allege” and “we believe” because we think that’s how the SEC words its documents to avoid slander, defamation, and to follow judicial procedure. So we are alleging this whole document to use our first amendment rights.
Right now the Federal Government has 91,000 Ethereum in their possession (Estimated value of $37M). When they received it, it was worth near $70M. The funds are there to make things right to an extent that the law and that the judge allows. We are pushing for the same type of justice we were before, the very same justice that the SEC itself denied.
The people deserve to know what happened, the silence and one sided narrative needs to end. We are going to fight this battle to the very end and prove ourselves. To continue forward, we unfortunately have no ability to use our Card Management System as it is now a reputational risk for any processor to continue to work with us because of the domino effect the SEC/DOJ have caused.
We were a global company offering services to users worldwide not just the US. We had opinion letters from alleged Attorneys on or around the beginning of our ICO, and then 2 times thereafter, which we were told that CTR itself was not a security and neither was the ICO because of how we made the token work in the product line. The attorneys themselves had told us this in 3 different occasions now. To set the record straight, the fact the the judge has ruled CTR is a security was for the purpose for that motion alone, Centra Tech is reserving the argument of why CTR is not a security later on. The plaintiffs counsel had made their argument, if we don’t argue back then we assume all the facts that they stated are correct for the purpose of that motion filed in the Southern District of Florida’s civil case. Centra Tech Inc will be arguing the point of why CTR isn’t a security later on. In the mean time, we realize their are obstacles that in the current situation we can’t do anything about. We can only focus on what we can work on without the use of intermediaries and institutions.
We are moving over the technology of Centrachain to an open-source decentralized community project called PHANTOM. PHANTOM will be available for more information on Phantom.org on its release or from its social media pages. PHANTOM will be a decentralized network ran on a DPoS protocol and will be a fork of ARK and CTR. We will be contributing software help to offer Private Smart Contracts and a Private based digital currency ran through the network. There will be a AMA next week through the Phantom Foundation, that is currently in the process of being formed in Malta, to answer any questions that the community has that can be answered. We have plans to release and open source wallet, merchant, and market tools to directly work with retailers and businesses for the acceptance of cryptocurrencies in the near future. Phantom Foundation plans to create a decentralized high-speed exchange as well within the roadmap as that technology was in development as well. We hope we have shed as much light on these issues as possible.
Thank you,
Centra
