Steven Nerayoff
Steven Nerayoff
Steven Nerayoff: Blockchain Futurist Conference
Steven Nerayoff is an American serial entrepreneur, attorney, and investor who founded Alchemist Ventures, an investment firm focusing on developing Blockchain projects. [8] [3] He is known as developer for 20 international patents and a founding father of several startups. [8]
Early Life
Nerayoff is a native of the state of New York, a place where he continues to live.
He grew up in the borough of Great Neck in Long Island. He is an alum of John L. Miller Great Neck North High School.
Education
After high school, Steven Nerayoff attended American University where he graduated with a B.A. degree in Accounting. He graduated in 1992. [8]
In 1995, he graduated from Tulane University Law School with his J.D. degree. [8]
A year after Tulane he attended New York University School of Law and earned his Master of Laws in Taxation. [8]
Career
Steven Nerayoff with a politician.
His initial work related to business began as a corporate attorney at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. Years after he would start his own startup companies including: Freedom Eldercare, iOffer.com, Fleetwood Owen, eWanted.com, Inside/Out City Guides. [8]
Tech
Steven Nerayoff is also involved in the tech space, most notably in Blockchain and Cryptocurrency.
Blockchain
Steven Nerayoff is known as being the Initial Coin Offering legal architect behind the release of Ethereum during its early stage in 2014 - before their launch. [8]
He has since been involved in many projects in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space including being a board member at Bancor.
He is currently the Founder CEO of Alchemist Ventures, an investment firm that focuses on developing existing Blockchain projects. [7]
Alleged Extortion
On September 18th 2019 Nerayoff was arrested by the FBI alongside his associate Michael Hlady for extortion. Nerayoff is facing up to 20 years in prison for his role in the plot. He maintains that the whole issue simply a civil dispute that shouldn't have been elevated to a criminal matter. [13]
According to the complaint Nerayoff’s firm was advising an undisclosed Seattle-based startup in July 2017.
He was originally entitled to 22.5% of all the cryptocurrency tokens sold during the ICO and 22.5% of all the funds raised. The complaint states that just before the ICO Nerayoff demanded 30,000 ETH if the pre-sale and crowd sale surpassed 60,000 ETH as well as a substantial amount of the company's ICO token. It goes on to say that Nerayoff threatened to sabotage the crowd sale, generate negative press for the company and use his contacts with influential people to ruin them. [13]
The undisclosed company's ICO raised 55,677 ETH during the pre-sale and the following crowd sale raised an additional 20,000 ETH.
Nerayoff received 30,000 of the 75,766 ETH that was raised.
Not much later, Nerayoff demanded a 10,000 ETH "loan" from the company and introduced them to his operations guy, Michael Hlady.
According to the documents: [13]
“Nerayoff claimed Hlady was a former government agent who could carry firearms through airports. On separate occasions, Hlady told Jane Doe that he had been shot at and had killed people, that he had ‘taken down’ a head of state, and that he had been a part of the Irish Republican Army, the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI."
It is alleged that Nerayoff and Hlady then snuck upon the Jane Doe they were extorting while she was sleeping and demanded the 10,000 ETH "loan."
Afterwards, Nerayoff and Hlady continued to send threatening iMessages, even implying that they would go after her children, she finally gave in and scheduled a 10,000 ETH loan to be paid back between March 28th 2018 and April 1st 2018. The money was never paid back. [13]