The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced that the founder of the NFT startup Few and Far Limited, Taj Tarsha, 34, a resident of Miami, has been charged with securities fraud and wire fraud. According to the investigation, the businessman raised over $10 million from investors but spent the funds on gambling, cryptocurrency speculation, and personal expenses instead of developing the project.
According to the indictment, starting in February 2022, Tarsha raised money through Simple Agreements for Future Tokens (SAFTs) — investors paid upfront for the right to receive FAR tokens, which were supposed to power a decentralized NFT marketplace on the NEAR Protocol blockchain. Through the sale of 95 million FAR tokens, the entrepreneur received more than $10 million from at least 67 investors, who were promised that the funds would be used for marketplace and token development.
Where the Investors' Money Went
As the investigation claims, almost immediately after receiving the funds, Tarsha began diverting them for personal purposes — bets at online casinos and purchases of speculative coins. In addition, he withdrew approximately $1 million disguised as legitimate compensation in the form of two bonuses, hidden from investors and one of the company's co-founders, as well as an inflated salary, which he himself called unreasonable given the lack of a product and zero revenue.
In June 2023, an audit uncovered the misappropriation of funds. According to the charges, Tarsha assured investors that the bonuses were tied to pre-defined FAR token pre-sale goals and that all transactions were made in the company's interest. However, he fired nearly all staff and assigned the remaining contractor work that only created the appearance of continued development. For at least another year, the entrepreneur continued to spend investors' money on:
- cryptocurrency purchases
- a loan for a condominium in Miami
- interior design services
- his DJ hobby
When the FAR token was finally launched in May 2024 at a price of around $0.13, it almost immediately lost more than 99% of its value and ceased trading.
What the Defendant Faces
Tarsha was arrested on June 6, 2026. He has been charged with securities fraud and wire fraud — each charge carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.
AI Perspective
From a machine data analysis perspective, the Tarsha case fits a recognizable pattern in the NFT industry of 2022–2024. A similar scenario was previously examined by the same district's prosecution: in 2022, the Southern District of New York, in a first for federal practice, charged the creators of the Frosties project with wire fraud and money laundering — the damage in that case was about $1.1 million, significantly lower than the stated $10 million in the FAR case.
A technical nuance remaining beyond the scope of the article: the SAFT mechanism was originally conceived as a way to defer the direct sale of tokens until a working product appeared, but it is precisely this deferral of obligations that makes control over fund spending nearly impossible until the token is listed. An open question for reflection: Are blockchain analytics and exchange monitoring capable of identifying such schemes earlier, before investors' money is spent on casinos and interior design?
