The short version
- Holograph’s former employee got five years in prison from a Paris court on November 6, two of them to serve, plus a fine of about $670,000.
- He minted 1 billion HLG tokens, worth about $14 million, in 2024 and moved the money through exchange accounts with two accomplices, who also got suspended or partly suspended terms.
- The court turned down Holograph’s claim for damages over the HLG crash, and the foundation says it is preparing to wind down.
A Paris criminal court on Friday, November 6, sentenced a former Holograph Foundation employee to five years in prison, two of them to be served, for minting 1 billion HLG tokens in 2024 and moving them through exchange accounts, according to AFP. The tokens were worth about $14 million at the time.
What the ruling comes down to:
1. Five years in prison for the ex-employee, three of them suspended, plus a fine of about $670,000. 2. Two accomplices convicted of laundering and complicity, both with lighter, partly or fully suspended terms. 3. Holograph’s claim for damages over the HLG price crash was turned down for lack of proof.
Wu Blockchain posted the ruling on Sunday:
Former Holograph Foundation Employee Sentenced to Five Years for Illegally Minting $14M in HLG Tokens
A Paris criminal court sentenced a former Holograph Foundation employee to five years in prison, with two years to be served and three years suspended, for illegally minting 1
What the Paris Court Decided in the Holograph Case
Judges convicted the ex-employee of hacking an automated data system, fraud, money laundering and criminal association, all as part of an organized group. The court president said the acts ran from May to August 2024: he changed the conditions for creating HLG, sent the new tokens to a wallet he controlled, and then spread the money across several exchange accounts with his two accomplices.
He has been in jail since September 2024, after his arrest in Italy and transfer to France. The trial opened on October 16.
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How Did One Insider Mint 1 Billion HLG?
He had the keys. The attacker’s address was allowed to call HLG’s mint function, so on June 13, 2024 he created 1 billion new tokens in nine transactions and started selling them into the market.
HLG fell about 80% within hours. The project’s own post-mortem that July blamed “a disgruntled former contractor” who had used admin access to plant malicious code in the protocol months earlier. The court calls him a former employee; either way, it was someone on the inside, not an outside hacker breaking through the smart contract.
That is the uncomfortable part for any token. Code audits check what a contract does, and an admin key can still change what it does later. Projects that keep minting power behind one key, rather than a multisig or a timelock, are trusting whoever holds it.
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What Is Left of HLG?
Very little. CoinGecko lists HLG at about $0.000002 at the time of writing, against a peak near $0.028 in May 2024, and a market value of roughly $3,000.
The foundation’s lawyer told the court it was at a standstill and preparing its liquidation because users had lost faith in the project. The defense, in turn, criticized the foundation for staying silent during the investigation and not handing over some of the documents it asked for.
Holders will notice the damages ruling most. According to TV5Monde, the court did not accept that the fraud alone caused the price collapse, so the conviction does not come with a payout for the crash. A 99.99% drop with no compensation is about as hard a lesson in dilution as the market hands out.
One date puts the sentence in context. He has been held since September 2024, 26 months by now, which is already longer than the two years he was ordered to serve.
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Teddy has been trading crypto since 2016. The focus is altcoins and EMA setups: finding coins sitting on key levels, waiting for support to hold or a range to be reclaimed, and trading the move from there. Bitcoin sets the tone, but the opportunities are usually in the alts.
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