Regulation
NFT Startup Founder Charged With Fraud a Year After Co-Founders Flagged Missing Funds
14 Aug 2026, 13:50
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Federal prosecutors have charged the founder of NFT startup Few and Far with securities and wire fraud, alleging he removed the co-founders who had uncovered irregularities in the company's treasury. The founder denies the allegations.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York have charged Taj Tarsha, founder of NFT startup Few and Far, with securities and wire fraud, alleging in an indictment that he removed the two co-founders who had raised concerns about the company's treasury, then later arranged for them to be compensated in exchange for giving up control of it. Tarsha, 34, of Miami, denies the allegations and was arrested in June; he faces up to 20 years in prison on each count if convicted, though he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty, and any sentence would be determined by the court.
According to the indictment, Tarsha raised more than $10 million from at least 67 investors beginning in February 2022, before Few and Far formally existed, by selling rights to tokens through Simple Agreements for Future Tokens, a fundraising instrument that lets startups collect money against a token that has not yet launched. The pitch described a decentralized NFT marketplace on the NEAR blockchain, with token holders eventually able to stake for substantial annual returns. Prosecutors allege that investor funds went into a single wallet Tarsha alone controlled, and that team members listed in fundraising materials as running development, operations and partnerships never actually worked for the company.
Under pressure for more transparency, Tarsha reportedly agreed in May 2022 to move the company's treasury into a wallet requiring approval from two of three co-founders, a safeguard the indictment says worked exactly once. In June 2023, according to prosecutors, the company's operations director and a co-founder uncovered irregularities in how funds had been used and removed Tarsha as a wallet signatory. Within two weeks, the indictment alleges, Tarsha fired both of them, then arranged to compensate them in exchange for regaining control of the wallet.
The case illustrates a structural vulnerability that has surfaced in other crypto fundraising disputes: a token-sale structure that let one founder retain full equity control while co-founders held only titles, with no outside board or regulator providing real-time oversight. Few and Far's token eventually launched in May 2024, more than two years after fundraising began, on a single exchange that was not legally available to the US investors who had funded the project; the token fell sharply in value within its first year and was later delisted. The company's website is no longer active. Tarsha's attorneys, Evan Barr and Kaela Dahan of Reed Smith, have said prosecutors are "rewriting a failed business venture as a criminal fraud case through hindsight," arguing that Few and Far was a legitimate startup that collapsed alongside the broader NFT market rather than a scheme, and that they intend to contest the charges.
According to the indictment, Tarsha raised more than $10 million from at least 67 investors beginning in February 2022, before Few and Far formally existed, by selling rights to tokens through Simple Agreements for Future Tokens, a fundraising instrument that lets startups collect money against a token that has not yet launched. The pitch described a decentralized NFT marketplace on the NEAR blockchain, with token holders eventually able to stake for substantial annual returns. Prosecutors allege that investor funds went into a single wallet Tarsha alone controlled, and that team members listed in fundraising materials as running development, operations and partnerships never actually worked for the company.
Under pressure for more transparency, Tarsha reportedly agreed in May 2022 to move the company's treasury into a wallet requiring approval from two of three co-founders, a safeguard the indictment says worked exactly once. In June 2023, according to prosecutors, the company's operations director and a co-founder uncovered irregularities in how funds had been used and removed Tarsha as a wallet signatory. Within two weeks, the indictment alleges, Tarsha fired both of them, then arranged to compensate them in exchange for regaining control of the wallet.
The case illustrates a structural vulnerability that has surfaced in other crypto fundraising disputes: a token-sale structure that let one founder retain full equity control while co-founders held only titles, with no outside board or regulator providing real-time oversight. Few and Far's token eventually launched in May 2024, more than two years after fundraising began, on a single exchange that was not legally available to the US investors who had funded the project; the token fell sharply in value within its first year and was later delisted. The company's website is no longer active. Tarsha's attorneys, Evan Barr and Kaela Dahan of Reed Smith, have said prosecutors are "rewriting a failed business venture as a criminal fraud case through hindsight," arguing that Few and Far was a legitimate startup that collapsed alongside the broader NFT market rather than a scheme, and that they intend to contest the charges.