Former Ethereum consultant speaks out on fraud accusations: Vitalik made "false accusations" in order to find a scapegoat

Odaily Planet Daily News Former Ethereum consultant Steven Nerayoff once again refuted the fraud accusations made against him by Vitalik Buterin. This comes after lawyer John Deaton disclosed that he saw some receipts in Nerayoff’s possession showing irregularities in the 2014 Ethereum ICO. In the video, Nerayoff elaborated on the fraud claims made by Vitalik, claiming that Vitalik and his father, Dmitry Buterin, conducted an "elaborate" character attack against him in order to make him a scapegoat. In the video, Vitalik can be heard accusing Nerayoff of committing a huge fraud by extorting money in connection with a company's ICO. Nerayoff also claimed that Virgil Griffith, a senior researcher and developer at the Ethereum Foundation, had been abandoned by Vitalik after he was "convicted of helping North Korea evade sanctions." (CoinGape) In 2019, the FBI arrested Steven Nerayoff and Alchemist partner Michael Hlady and filed racketeering charges; in 2021, Michael Hlady admitted to conspiring to extort millions of dollars in Ethereum from a startup company, thus facing up to 20 years in prison and a fine. Hlady and his co-conspirator Steven Nerayoff allegedly threatened to destroy a startup executive if they did not agree to demands for additional funds and tokens.