AriseBank CEO Jared Rice, Sr. faces a heavy prison term. He was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday and charged with defrauding hundreds of investors in a cryptocurrency scheme.
Rice, who is also the subject of a civil action filed by the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office earlier this year, was indicted on three counts of securities fraud and three counts of wire fraud.
According to court documents unsealed on Wednesday, Rice, 30, allegedly lied to would-be investors, claiming that AriseBank – which he labeled as the world’s “first decentralized banking platform” based on a proprietary digital currency called AriseCoin – could offer consumers FDIC-insured accounts and traditional banking services, including Visa-brand credit and debit cards, in addition to cryptocurrency services. In fact, AriseBank had not been authorized to conduct banking in Texas, was not FDIC insured, and did not have any sort of partnership with Visa.
Even as he touted AriseBank’s nonexistent benefits in press releases and online, Rice converted investor funds for his own personal use, spending the money on hotels, food, clothing, and a family law attorney.
According to public records and the Grand Jury indictment, Jared Rice was previously charged with tampering with government records in Texas for forging the Secretary of State’s seal and signature on incorporation documents. In the same case, which dates back to 2015 and was related to another attempted internet venture, Rice was charged with stealing – in that case, investor funds. This would have been something an ICO reviewer might have come across with any degree of research.
To add a bit of TMZ-style flair to his case, Rice decided to use some of the proceeds of the AriseBank scam to fund his family attorney and a guardian ad litem, which are items related to his apparent domestic problems. In the photo to the right, he is under arrest and held on $15,000 bond for assault on a family member. The domestic violence arrest appears to have been after the charge of defrauding the previous investor, who is not named in the Grand Jury indictment document nor is immediately apparent in other methods of inquiry.
It seems that in all his spending, he did not think to pay to scrub his arrest records, not even with the prospect of millions of dollars more.
He allegedly falsely claimed the “Initial Coin Offering,” or ICO, had raised $600 million within just a few weeks and failed to disclose that he’d plead guilty to state felony charges in connection with a prior Internet-related business scheme. Meanwhile, investors were buying AriseCoin using digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and fiat currency.
If convicted, Rice faces up to 120 years in federal prison.
What about Hoa Lee Perkins, Stanley Ford, Amy E. Olivieri, and the rest of the immoral mob?
Update: Northern Data AG (and Riot Blockchain) engage in accounting fraud?, read more here.
Riot’s Cost Structure Cites Massive Overvaluation, read more here.
Chad Harris defaults on million dollar loan, click here to learn more. Be sure to read the court doc. It’s a hoot, He tries to play the victim. The judge ain’t buying it.
Chad Everett Harris owned this business while defaulting on loans and invoices. Click here to learn more.
Chad Harris sent email like these to the people he owed money to.