The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges today in regard to an alleged crypto pump and dump scheme involving a digital asset DIG (Dignity).
The SEC’s charges are against Arbitrade Ltd., a Bermudan company, and Cryptobontix Inc., a Canadian company, and their principals:
- Troy R. J. Hogg
- James L. Goldberg
- Stephen L. Braverman
- Max W. Barber, owner of SION Trading FZE
According to the complaint, the SEC claims that the two companies and their principles claimed to hold $10 billion in gold bullion from SION Trading FZE. The company intended to back each DIG token with $1 worth of physical gold. The defendants claimed that an independent auditing firm had verified the gold’s existence.
As alleged, the gold was a sham to boost demand for DIG, and the defendants sold at least $36.8 million in DIG tokens to unsuspecting investors.
The SEC’s complaint charges the defendants with violating the antifraud and securities registration provisions of the federal securities laws.
The complaint seeks permanent injunctive relief, disgorgement plus prejudgment interest, and civil penalties against all of the defendants, and officer-and-director bars against the individual defendants.
The SEC’s complaint also names SION as a relief defendant seeking disgorgement plus prejudgment interest.
Earlier today I attended a presentation by newly incorporated #Bermuda company @ArbitradeX. The team demonstrated their #cryptocurrency platform and explained plans to create more job opportunities in Bermuda for #Bermudians. pic.twitter.com/9lPmOUshqj
— Premier David Burt (@BermudaPremier) May 31, 2018