The FBI’s New York Field Office is seeking to identify potential victims of Braden John Karony and his co-conspirators Kyle Nagy and Thomas Smith. In May 2025, Karony was convicted on all counts of a three-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. The charges arose from the Defendants’ roles in defrauding investors in a decentralized finance digital asset called “SafeMoon,” issued by their company SafeMoon LLC. Co-conspirator Kyle Nagy is also charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering, and remains at large. In February 2025, Smith pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud and wire fraud.
As proven at trial, between approximately March 2021 and June 2022, Karony and his co- conspirators agreed to lie to SafeMoon V1 investors about whether SafeMoon executives could access SafeMoon’s liquidity pool and whether they were using the assets from the liquidity pool for their personal benefit. As SafeMoon’s market capitalization grew, Karony and his co- conspirators fraudulently diverted and misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth of liquidity from the SafeMoon liquidity pool for their personal benefit.
The FBI is asking anyone who lost money as a result of purchasing SafeMoon v.1 tokens to complete the questionnaire below to assist the FBI with identifying victims of the SafeMoon fraud.
If you and/or your minor dependent(s) were victimized by Karony, Nagy, or Smith or have information relevant to this investigation, please fill out this short form.
If you know of someone else who has possibly been victimized by Karony, Nagy, or Smith, please encourage them to complete the form themselves.
The FBI is legally mandated to identify victims of federal crimes it investigates. Victims may be eligible for certain services, restitution, and rights under federal and/or state law. Your responses are voluntary but may be useful in the federal investigation and to identify you as a potential victim. Based on the responses provided, you may be contacted by the FBI and asked to provide additional information. All identities of victims will be kept confidential.
