In 2021, a random guy from Utah pulled off a $200M heist that hit 2M victims globally. Then he blew it on a brand new Audi R8, 2 custom trucks, a Tesla, and 2 mansions. For years, his victims believed he was just a genius CEO. Until one tiny, unexpected detail exposed him🧵
His name? Braden John Karony. Before we dive in, you need to understand something. 2021 was peak crypto mania. Bitcoin smashed past $60k. Dogecoin was mainstream. Shiba Inu literally turned kids into millionaires overnight.
So, when an anonymous developer - Kyle Nagy, launched Safemoon in March 2021, it fit right into the madness. It was branded as the next big thing - a token that rewarded holders, locked liquidity forever, and promised to take your account balance “safely to the moon".
The details made it even more irresistible: • 1 quadrillion tokens minted • 10% fee on every trade(5% redistributed to holders and 5% to the liquidity pool) • Liquidity locked for atleast 4 years. Then came the endorsements.
Popular celebrities like Logan Paul, Nick Carter, Soulja Boy, and Ben Phillips publicly endorsed it. That further legitimized it. Millions bought in and in less than 2 weeks, it grew by 23,225%.
Seeing the explosive growth, Kyle brought in someone to lead the project. His name was Braden John Karony -an ex-military analyst turned crypto CEO. He became the public face of SafeMoon while Nagy stayed in the shadows.
Under Karony, SafeMoon promised the world: →A crypto wallet →A debit card → A blockchain And a renewable energy project in Africa. It was pitched as an entire movement and not just a token anymore. But the bigger the promises, the more questions started to surface.
As investigators and skeptics began to dig deeper, they discovered that millions were quietly being siphoned out of the pool into private wallets. And those wallets were traced back to the very people running it.
You see, contrary to the claims, Safemoon's liquidity wasn't locked. Kyle, Karony, and the CTO of Safemoon - Thomas Smith, had control over the wallet and siphoned and misappropriated about $200M in investors funds over time. Then came the spending spree.
Karony splurged like a rockstar. He bought an Audi R8, a Tesla, custom Ford F-550 and Jeep Gladiator trucks, plus 2 mansions in Utah and Kansas, one worth over $2.2M. All funded by money investors thought were safely locked.
But you can’t hide something like that forever. By 2022, Coffeezilla and other investigators were already tracing the wallets. Class-action lawsuits followed even dragging in celebrity promoters like Logan Paul and Soulja Boy. And regulators were watching closely.
They were quietly building their own case in the background. Every wallet. Every transfer. Every insider cash-out. The blockchain didn't forget. Evidence piled up.
On Nov 1, 2023, it all came crashing down. • Braden Karony (CEO) was arrested in Utah • Thomas Smith (CTO) was picked up in New Hampshire • Founder Kyle Nagy had already fled to Russia. The charges? Securities fraud. Wire fraud. Money laundering.
Although they are yet to be sentenced, the lesson is clear: In crypto, don’t confuse hype for safety. “Locked liquidity” can be unlocked. Celebrity endorsements don’t equal legitimacy. Verify on-chain. Question everything. Your money deserves that level of skepticism.
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@swipelabscrypto the irony of being a genius and a dumb spender
@swipelabscrypto Amazing share