Shopin blockchain startup founder and CEO Eran Eyal pleads guilty to $42.5 million initial coin offering fraud

We last wrote about cryptocurrency Shopin back in November 2018. Now its founded and CEO Eran Eyal has pleaded guilty to felony securities fraud in connection with an estimated $42.5 million initial coin offering by his blockchain startup, the office of New York Attorney General announced on Thursday.

Eyal pleaded guilty to felony securities fraud in violation of the Martin Act related to his scheme with Shopin. He also pleaded guilty to two counts of Scheme to Defraud in the First Degree, a Class E felony, related to his two prior companies — Springleap, Inc. and Passo Sync, Inc.

As part of the sentence, Eyal was ordered to pay $125,000 in restitution and $475,000 in judgments to investors in Springleap, and to surrender the remaining cryptocurrency received from Shopin investors — currently valued at approximately $450,000.

“My office won’t allow white collar criminals to get away with their schemes to defraud innocent victims, no matter how complex,” said Attorney General James. “This one individual created company after company after company just to continue cheating investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Using fake product trials and nonexistent contracts with major retailers he was able to lure victims to invest in his technology schemes, including his very own cryptocurrency. We will use every available resource at our disposal to pursue all who attempt to abuse and manipulate the system, because no one is above the law,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, said Thursday.

Founded in 2017 by Eran Eyal, Shopin lets users experience a smarter, more personal way of shopping online. Through its API, retailers can access and utilize its shopper-verified preferences to offer shoppers a more personalized, immersive shopping experience. Shopin is a universal shopper profile platform that delivers the most personal shopping experience on retailers’ websites, apps, and stores based on shopper preferences and purchase history data.