A former director of the Hydrogen Technology Corporation, Michael Kane, has been sentenced to 45 months in prison. According to the prosecutor, Kane committed fraud with crypto-related securities. In addition, Shane Hampton, the former head of the financial engineering department, received a 35-month prison sentence for complicity.
The court’s attorney general stated that the ruling is a warning and that the Criminal Division will use securities laws to ensure the integrity of the cryptocurrency markets.
Kane and others previously had legal issues. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started a lawsuit against Kane and his company in September 2022. They were accused of manipulating trading volumes and prices of the HYDRO token.
In April 2023, a judge in New York ordered Kane and his company to pay $2.8 million in damages. Around the same time, it was announced that Kane and Hampton would be prosecuted in the state of Florida. Kane pleaded guilty to one charge and has not yet been convicted of another. Hampton was also convicted of similar suspicions in February.