PANews reported on February 21 that according to Cointelegraph, SafeMoon Chief Technology Officer Thomas Smith admitted to participating in a $200 million cryptocurrency fraud case. He has pleaded guilty to two charges of securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy in the Brooklyn Federal Court. The maximum sentences for these two charges are 25 years and 20 years respectively.

Earlier news, the U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC accused SafeMoon executives of fraud, and prosecutors accused Braden John Karony, Kyle Nagy, and Thomas Smith of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and conspiracy to launder money because they deceived investors in a decentralized financial digital asset called "SafeMoon."