Few and Far NFT founder Taj Tarsha was charged with securities fraud, accused of using $10 million in investor capital for gambling, speculation, and his personal DJ hobby.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York charged Taj Tarsha, 34, the founder of the NFT trading platform Few and Far, with allegations of securities fraud and wire fraud.
According to the indictment, Tarsha raised more than $10 million from investors with the commitment to use the funds to build a decentralized trading platform for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). However, in reality, most of the money was transferred to support online gambling activities, speculative cryptocurrency trading, and personal expenses, including funding a personal DJ hobby.
Allegations from prosecutors and the defendant’s response
James C. Barnacle Jr., Assistant Director in charge of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said Tarsha is accused of concealing fraud behind its cryptocurrency startup and using investors’ money for personal benefit, while also stating that the FBI will continue a comprehensive investigation into conduct that shows violations of financial laws. For his part, Tarsha denies all allegations.
Through attorneys Even T. Barr and Kaela Dahan, he argued that this was a legitimate Web3 startup that had genuinely built an NFT marketplace and issued its own tokens, but later suffered the same fate as the market collapse that had harmed many other NFT projects. The attorneys emphasized that business failure does not mean criminal wrongdoing and insisted their client wanted to be fully exonerated.
According to prosecutors, Tarsha began raising capital in 2022 through Simple Agreements for Future Token (SAFTs), selling rights to receive 95 million FAR tokens to at least 67 investors.
Instead of using the raised funds to develop the exchange as promised, Tarsha is accused of transferring much of the money to personal purposes almost immediately, including nearly $1 million in bonus expenses, inflated salary payments, payments on a loan to buy a condominium in Miami, hiring interior design services, and other expenditures unrelated to business operations.
Prosecutors also allege that Tarsha concealed the company’s unstable financial condition after a 2023 audit found irregularities, while creating the appearance that the project was still being developed despite laying off nearly all employees. When the FAR token was finally issued in May 2024, the token was almost worthless and quickly stopped trading.
The case follows a series of other federal cases involving fraud in the NFT space, including one involving Aurelien Michel, founder of the Mutant Ape Planet project, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in November 2023 after allegations of “rug-pulling” that caused investors to lose nearly $3 million, along with related cases tied to the Frosties and Baller Ape Club projects.
U.S. Federal Deputy Prosecutor Sean S. Buckley said investors have a right to know the truth when making decisions, and he pledged that the office and its law-enforcement partners will hold company leaders accountable for lying to profit personally.