SafeMoon’s image was carefully curated — and misleading, witness says
The criminal trial of former SafeMoon CEO John Karony entered its second week with testimony from Henry “Hank” Wyatt, a SafeMoon staffer who handled communications until his resignation in September 2021. Wyatt, under questioning from prosecutors, testified that Karony, SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy, and CTO Thomas “Papa” Smith jointly approved content for SafeMoon’s website in March of that year that misrepresented the nature of its tokenomics. Specifically, these included claims that new liquidity generated by the protocol was “automatically” locked in the liquidity pool. Wyatt also testified that Karony directed changes to this language later. In preserved messages, Karony sought language that would clarify that “ LP is auto-generated but not auto-locked ” via SafeMoon’s 10% transaction fee. Karony also had the slogan “100% community owned” changed to “100% community driven.” While such later changes at Karony’s direction may lead the jury to conclude that he event...