Two of the company’s founders spent time in prison for drug dealing, CEO says he “ultimately built a better life for myself.”
Unstoppable Domains has been making waves in the blockchain world.
The company offers blockchain-based domains ending in extensions such as .crypto and .nft. Over 2.7 million domains have been registered through its platform, and the success has not gone unnoticed.
Earlier this year, the company raised $65 million, valuing the company at $1 billion. Pantera Capital led the round, following on previous investors Boost VC and Draper Associates.
While the future trajectory of blockchain domains is very much up in the air, this is quite a turn of events for two of Unstoppable Domains’ co-founders, Matthew Gould and Bradley Kam. About a decade ago, both were in prison.
According to court filings, Gould and Kam have been friends since grade school. That friendship turned into business ventures. One was a real estate company; another was drug dealing.
From 2005 to 2009, they worked together to sell hundreds of kilograms of marijuana. According to court documents, at one point during his drug dealing days, Gould traveled with nearly $260,000 in cash. It was the proceeds from marijuana sales and he was delivering the funds to a marijuana supplier, Gould admitted.
A grand jury indicted the pair in 2010 on federal charges for distribution of marijuana. They faced stiff penalties, but both plead guilty in plea agreements and agreed to cooperate.
Gould and Kam were sentenced to 30 months in prison and recommended to participate in intensive drug treatment programs. Both were also sentenced to four years supervised release upon leaving prison.
Gould served a little over a year of his prison sentence, from March 2011 to May 2012 at FPC Montgomery. He then went to the Dismas halfway house in Atlanta until August 2012, at which point he went into home confinement at his parent’s house until November 2012.
Kam served his time at FCI Talledega…
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