Former SPAC CFO pleads guilty to embezzlement to exchange crypto

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As Cooper Morgenthau, the former chief financial officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday to wire fraud charges before U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in federal court in Manhattan.

Ex-CFO Crimes committed and sentence

According to authorities, Morgenthau embezzled more than $1.2 million between June 2021 and August 2022 from African Gold Acquisition Corp, a blank check company, and underhandedly committed the crime by falsifying his account statements, and l had spent or lost all in crypto stock trading and even. .

Subsequently, the SEC said Morgenthau raised a total of $4.7 million from investors in SPACs, aka Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp, to cover his losses, but lost most of the funds in trading. of crypto. Upon his scheduled sentencing on April 25, Morgenthau would face a likely prison sentence of about 6 to 7 years under recommended federal guidelines.

EX-CFO set for a deal

Morgenthau agreed to an agreement to forfeit $5.11 million and pay an equal amount in restitution, as well as to settle related civil charges by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. His experience in the African Gold company appears to be a recurring activity of illegal embezzlement since Morgenthau.

African Gold, which was created to buy a New York-based gold mining business, raised $414 million in an initial public offering in February 2021. The SEC said the company eventually terminated Morgenthau last year in August after finding out he had fled with funds and suppliers refusing to work for the company.

According to African Gold, he fired Morgenthau at the time after learning of his “abusive withdrawals trying hard to cover them up. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan noted in a statement that given the guilty plea, Morgenthau “admitted to infringing on the trust he owed his public and private investors.”

Meanwhile, the crypto market still seems to be in a confused state with the small pump going on in Bitcoin and other altcoins. So far, Bitcoin is up 1.12% in the past 24 hours, gaining over $100 in price.

BTC Price Rebounds Above $16,800 | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

As the chart above shows, there is a good chance that we will soon see a comeback to remove liquidity from the vector candle. As for the other altcoins, they all seem to follow the same path as Bitcoin. As of this writing, Ethereum is up 3% with a trading price of $1,251.

Featured image from iStock, charts from TradingView.com

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