Disguised NJ Woman and her Aide Duped Investors in 30 million blockchain-based Fraud


An Essex woman Edith Pardo (age 68) and her
Canadian crime partner Boaz Manor (Age 46) were arrested by the FBI, under
the accusation of her alleged involvement in a scam of $30 million
orchestrated by Manor.
Both were charged under Wire and Securities
fraud and conspiracy charges by US Attorney Craig Carpenito. Additionally,
the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Friday filed a civil complaint
against both the crime partners.
How the Fraud was Orchestrated?
The main accused Boaz Manor who was convicted criminal in Canada, founded a firm in 2017 called CG Blockchain Inc. Manor raised most of the seed money from his close family member. He further partnered with Pardo to hide the source of the seed money. Edith Pardo, his crime aide disguised herself as an affluent investor, who financed seed money to CG blockchain Inc.
Manor then developed a product called Compliance
Guard under the CG Blockchain which was a blockchain-based auditing tool to
protect the pensioner’s funds and their investments.
CJ Blockchain offered initial coin offering
(ICOs) and begin promoting a new product called Blockchain Terminal that
permitted financial Institutions and hedge funds to trade cryptocurrencies.
The ICO token was aggressively marketed to
potential investors under false information. Pardo and Manor duped the investors
by misleading them that the 20 hedge funds were using Compliance Guard and each
one was paying CG Blockchain a $1million annual fees. Within a year, the
company accumulated $30 million from the ICOs.
While raising capital for CG Blockchain,
Manor concealed his true identity and criminal past record from investors and
other business associates and used false identity as Shaun McDonald and
disguised himself. He also had changed his look to deceive the investors.
A group of his company employees from Hong
Kong got suspicious of his past when their regular salaries were discontinued.
They managed to trace his past record from some photo images on Facebook.
When confronted by an investor, Manor
admitted that he had concealed his identity and criminal activities to maintain
the reputation of his new ICO venture.
Boaz Manors past criminal record
In 2005 Boaz Manor was involved in $730
million hedge fund fraud in Canada. He was then accused of having offshore
accounts, smuggling of diamonds and investments. Before returning to the
US, he was a fugitive for almost 2 years in Canada. He was imprisoned for four
years and was banned in the capital markets of the province.
Future Action by the Court
FBI has arrested Pardo on Friday 17, 2020,
and she will be produced before the US Magistrate Jude Steven in Newark Federal
Court on next Friday 24.
Both the criminals might be imprisoned for
20 years long with a maximum penalty of $250,000, or twice the gross profit or
loss from the offense.
#ComplianceGuard #CJBlockchainInc #Blockchain #ICO #SEC #FBI #NewarkFederalCourt

Jayashree Ingle
CBW - External Analyst
INDIA