🚨 Alert 1/4/21 🚨  The SEC has taken legal action to shut down the Shipchain ICO scam and return money to investorsÂ
According to a lawsuit pending in South Carolina, John Monarch, CEO of Shipchain (which has sold $30M in cryptocurrency this month and is now raising an additional $15M via ICO offerings), is expected to stand trial for his alleged role in a 2013 cryptocurrency blackmail scheme this year.
It is alleged that Monarch, whom is a self-proclaimed cryptocurrency expert, blackmailed Pa. businessman Richard Gorman for $500,000 in cryptocurrency in December, 2013. When Gorman refused to pay the cryptocurrency ransom, the lawsuit alleges that Monarch and co-conspirators waged an online smear campaign against Gorman’s employees, clients, vendors, and children.
Monarch’s co-defendant and one-time best friend, Karl Steinborn, was held liable for $3.1M in damages and subsequently committed suicide in 2016 on Gorman’s birthday.  The case against Monarch, which was originally filed in Federal Court in Pennsylvania, will be tried in Greenville, South Carolina. Gorman has retained the state’s top litigators, Robert Goings and Kirby Shealy, to try the case.
