Saw this in the French media: Last Friday, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced a former employee of the Holograph Foundation to 5 years in prison—2 years to be served and 3 years suspended—plus a €600,000 fine.
The court found that between May and August 2024, the Ukrainian employee, who was working there at the time, altered HLG’s minting conditions to create 1 billion tokens out of thin air, then transferred them to his own wallet. They were worth around $14 million at the time (about €12.5 million). Two accomplices helped him spread the tokens across accounts at several exchanges. They were sentenced to 2 years in prison (14 months suspended) plus an €80,000 fine, and 2 years suspended plus a €40,000 fine, respectively.
The three must also jointly pay the foundation €1.15 million in compensation for direct property losses, plus around €106,800 for other losses. The platform later shut down after HLG fell to around $0.001. The foundation sought to include the token’s price collapse in its compensation claim, but the court rejected this—the judge said the token had only been listed for a short time and its price had already fallen sharply before the crime came to light, so it could not be established that the drop was directly caused by the fraud.
The lead defendant was also charged with interfering with an automated data-processing system, organized fraud, money laundering, and participation in a criminal organization. He was arrested in Italy in September 2024 and later extradited to France, where he remained in custody until sentencing.
#Holograph #HLG