What Happened To Arise Bank CEO Who Was Accused Of Fraud?

By Rishma Banerjee

After the passage of several months, on March 20, CEO of the now-defunct AriseBank, Jared Rice appeared in the Texan court and pleaded guilty on defrauding his investors, reaching an amount of $4.2 million. Dallas News, reports that  Rice submitted a plea agreement in the court wherein he detailed his crimes of ‘scamming hundreds of investors into buying AriseCoin cryptocurrency with cash or popular digital currencies Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin.’ He also mentioned in his statement, that the money he admittedly collected through scams, unfortunately, had already been used on his leisure expenses with his girlfriends and lawyers.

The charges against him were firmly filed in the court as his investors are now demanding reimbursement from the stolen funds.

Erin Nealy Cox, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, stated that there was a tough regulatory system in place against frauds and scammers like Rice. She also said,

“We will not tolerate flagrant deception of investors, virtual or otherwise.”

Arise Bank first made the news back in January 2018 when the Texas Department of Banking filed a report against the crypto company because of their false brand naming of putting ‘bank’ on their name without being affiliated to any banks. The company, which weren’t even providing any banking service, had promised their investors of ‘no risk returns of 10 to 20 per cent’ on each of their invested money. They also had made an announcement about raising $600 million from its newly-launched ICO. This news alarmed not just the Texan government but the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

As was reported by us, FBI finally arrested Rice due to his crimes against crypto fraud and scamming hundreds of his investors on his ‘too good to be true’ offers.

The court now expects  Rice and his business partner, Stanley Ford to pay fines of $2,259,543 in disgorgement, $68,423 in prejudgment interest, and a penalty of $184,767 each and since Rice already pleaded guilty in the court, the defrauded investors are expected to receive money from damages and reimbursement from their stolen investments. Rice and his partners in AriseBank are also to face up to 20 years in prison once his sentence starts on July 11, 2019.