John Karony trial starts with a confused witness and SafeMoon merch
The criminal trial of former SafeMoon CEO Braden John Karony started at a sprint today, moving swiftly from opening statements and testimony from a victim who lost $20,000, to a surprisingly early appearance from the prosecution’s star witness, Thomas “Papa” Smith. Papa, former CTO of SafeMoon, has pleaded guilty to the same money laundering, securities fraud, and wire fraud charges that Karony faces, and testified against his former gaming buddy in hopes of reducing his eventual sentence. Both the highs and lows of the day belonged to Nicholas Smith (no relation to Thomas), Karony’s relentless and combative defense attorney. Karony is alleged to have represented SafeMoon’s liquidity pool on the PancakeSwap DEX as “locked,” or impossible to withdraw — even as he was withdrawing millions of dollars. Nicholas Smith, who resembles a much smaller version of Saturday Night Live alum Chris Parnell, meticulously interrogated witnesses in pursuit of a clear agenda: demons...