BITCONNED scammer Ray Trapani says his life was spiraling out of control and he was taking drugs “all day” before he was arrested for stealing $32million from crypto investors.
The 32-year-old appears in the Netflix documentary about the Centra Tech scandal, which saw even major celebrities tricked into promoting the fake company around 2017.
Ray teamed up with business partners Sohrab “Sam” Sharma and Robert Joseph Farkas and the trio claimed to have revolutionized cryptocurrency payments through new debit cards.
The former friends previously ran a luxury car rental company called Miami Exotics and had started to get a taste of the high life.
But Centra Tech was all built on lies, and they had not developed what they were promoting on their website.
They also invented their CEO, claimed on LinkedIn to be Harvard graduates, and lied about major companies backing them.
Before everything came crashing down, Ray admits he was slowly killing himself with drugs, having been taking them on/off since he was young growing up on Long Island.
Despite the luxury cars, girls, and wads of money being thrown around in strip clubs, life wasn’t all glamorous.
Speaking exclusively to The U.S. Sun, Ray said, “I’m like an all-or-nothing type of guy. And when you have unlimited money and you just have too much access, I had like a million pills in my house.
“I was just doing drugs all day. I was up to 25 Xanax a day.”
Asked how he would describe that period of his life, he replied, “Like pure degeneracy.”
He explained he’d always had an addictive personality as he struggled with childhood abuse, alleging he was molested by someone connected to his family from the ages of 8 to 12.
‘HOOKED ON OXY’
“I always had this forever feeling, this empty chase for more,” he said.
“Ever since the childhood abuse happened I was like, ‘I want to take over the world’ type of thing.
“It was just an endless search for more and more. Even when I had made my first million or two million, whatever it was, that all happened very fast.
“I was always right away trying to make a hundred million. There was never a point where I would have been content like, ‘I have enough.'”
When you have unlimited money and you just have too much access, I had like a million pills in my house.”
Ray Trapani
He alleged he first took drugs as a child and ended up hooked on Oxycontin at 16 after being prescribed the strong narcotic following a car accident which left him with multiple injuries.
“I was in Long Island coming back from a poker game and the car flipped like 20 times,” he claimed.
“My whole face was completely chopped. I had to get plastic surgery.
“And that was back in like the opiate epidemic days. There’s no way that any kid at 16 should get prescribed that much Oxy … 120mg of Oxy 30mg pills is an insane dose for anybody.
“Once you’re taking it for like a month straight, you’re hooked.
“Then sooner or later you’re not getting prescriptions and you’re just buying Oxy.
‘SUICIDE ATTEMPT’
“What happened one day, it was like a drought and you couldn’t get it in town, everybody’s withdrawing and someone mentioned heroin, like ‘I have this’, and you just went and tried it.”
He says he was a heroin addict for a short period but became addicted to Xanax before the Centra Tech storm, as his relationship with his business associates was up and down.
Ray accused them of blowing through money after he’d taken out loans from his family he was now struggling to pay back.
“There’s the midpoint of Miami exotics and I’m basically like, ‘Screw these guys. I’m gonna take the rest of this money, withdraw all the money from all the bank accounts.’
“And I flew to Vegas to try to just win all the money back for my family.
“I was like, ‘I’m either gonna win it all or I’m gonna kill myself.’
“And I lost all the money and I just went to my hotel room and took a bunch of Xanax and whatever else I had on me.”
Miraculously, he survived and never even went to hospital, although his mom was left terrified for his safety.
“I literally just fell asleep and then woke up like 20 hours later,” he said, “Everybody that knows me, my actual friends, they think I’m like the luckiest person ever.”
But he wasn’t so lucky when it came to the law catching up with him.
Ray pleaded guilty to four counts; securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
He was given time already served and sentenced to three years of supervised release, “to run concurrently on all counts.”
Ray was also ordered to pay nearly $3 million in fines which he’ll likely be paying back for years.
FRESH START
His cofounders were both sentenced to time in jail for their part in the scam.
Ray insists there’s no excuse for his crimes, but he’s glad he got caught and feels he’s been given a second chance at life after two years working in a therapy program.
He explained: “I got my CASAC, which is a Certification for Substance Abuse Counseling. I interned as a CASAC under a therapist for like two and a half years before I got sentenced.
“Through therapy, I’d see so many other sexual abuse victims and they’re like 50, 60 and they still have so much resentment towards whoever abused them.
“I just don’t have it in me to even like try to pursue anything [with police]. I think I’m fully over it. I feel like it holds no weight on me.”
Ray, who is now married with two young children, has been clean and sober since his arrest on April 20, 2018, and wants his kids to have a better childhood than he had.
“Having a wife or kids, you put someone in front of yourself,” he said.
“Before, I was just the only one that was important, it’s like you’re the main character of the story. I have just such a responsibility to them now.
“I think if I had good guidance as a kid, which I didn’t, crime was applauded as a kid almost.
“But I’m not that person anymore. It’s in the past and I want to guide my kids and teach them right from wrong.”
You're not alone
SUICIDE is the 10th leading cause of death in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Leading Causes of Death Report from 2018.
There were “more than two and half times as many suicides” in the US than there were homicides, according to the report.
For people ages 10 and 34, suicide was the “second leading cause of death” and the fourth for individuals ages 35 to 54.
Suicide is a vital health concern in the U.S. It affects all genders, races and ages.
This is why The-Sun.com launched the You’re Not Alone campaign.
The campaign calls on readers to discuss their mental health issues with their family, friends and health professionals. We can all pitch in to help out others who may be suffering and help save lives.
If you are struggling to cope, you are not alone. There are many free and confidential programs in the US aimed to help those who are struggling with their mental health.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health problems, these organizations are here to provide support:
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org, 1-800-273-TALK
- Crisis Text Line, www.crisistextline.org, Text HOME to 741741
- Veterans Crisis Hotline, www.veteranscrisisline.net, 1-800-273-8255
- Trevor Project, www.thetrevorproject.org, 1-866-488-7386
