Prosecutors in Japan today asked the courts to levy ten years imprisonment against Mark Karpeles, former CEO of Mt Gox, the largest early bitcoin exchange, Nikkei Asian Review reports. Mt Gox folded in 2014 after $423 million in bitcoins and $247 million in cash went… Read More
About eight months ago, a man facing jail for allegedly taking more cash than is legally allowed in a Bitcoin transaction began heavily promoting a “Bitcointopia” project he’d conceived to develop in Nevada. Morgan Rockcoons, (also known as Nodefather, Morgan Rockwell, and Metaballo) posted relentless… Read More
Gibralter, an, “Offshore tax haven…not exactly known for (its) punctiliousness in punishing companies offering below-board services,” has fined the pre-paid cryptocurrency card provider Wavecrest about $315 000 for “serious” problems with its anti-money laundering/anti-terrorist finance controls, Financial Times Alphaville (FTA) reports. According to FTA, WaveCrest…”once did big… Read More
Steven Peikin, Co-Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, told an audience at Harvard Law School this week that, given the increasingly cross-border nature of ICO and securities fundraising, “Collaboration with international regulators and law enforcement is critical to the SEC’s civil law enforcement success.”… Read More
The SEC has settled with CoinAlpha Advisors LLC, a Delaware-registered, California-based company the Commission says sold a cryptocurrency investment fund product without registering with the SEC or qualifying for a securities exemption. According to the cease-and-desist order issued Friday, December 7th, CoinAlpha Advisors formed in… Read More
November was a busy month for the SEC’s burgeoning regulation of digital assets. In the first action of its kind, the Commission brought enforcement proceedings against the founder of digital asset trading platform EtherDelta for operating as an unregistered securities “exchange.” Ten days later, the… Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled charges against two high-profile initial coin offering (ICO) promoters. Music producer DJ Khaled and boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. were cited for failing to disclose they were remunerated for promoting ICOs via their social media channels. The SEC… Read More
The Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) has issued an emergency cease-and-desist order against an accused serial fraudster, Mark Steven Royer. Mr. Royer is allegedly selling the “My Crypto Mine” project, which bears the features of a pyramid scheme. Earlier this year, Royer and two partners… Read More
On November 16th, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its first enforcement actions against initial coin offerings (ICOs) that did not file for an appropriate securities exemption following the SEC’s DAO report. The SEC settled claims with both Paragon and AirFox with each ICO issuer… Read More
Last Friday, the SEC settled charges against two companies, CarrierEQ Inc. dba Airfox (“Airfox”) and Paragon Coin Inc. (“Paragon”), which raised money with initial coin offerings (“ICOs”). The SEC found that both companies violated the registration provisions of the U.S. securities laws because neither company… Read More
Cannabis focused blockchain startup Paragon (Paragon Coin) has issued a press release following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) announcement last week that Paragon had settled with the SEC regarding charges of issuing an unregistered security. Paragon was one of two ICOs that were deemed… Read More
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a rare statement on the issuance of digital assets that are securities. The statement comes following the release of two initial coin offering (ICO) enforcement actions for issuers that raised money after the SEC published the landmark DAO… Read More
The first person to be prosecuted in the US for ICO (initial coin offering) fraud has pleaded guilty to misleading 1000 investors, Bloomberg reports. On Thursday, Maksim Zaslavskiy, 39, admitted in a Brooklyn federal courtroom that he collected money for two ICOs: RECoin and Diamond… Read More
This has been a big week for digital asset / ICO law in America. Yesterday, Maksim Zaslavskiy pleaded guilty to fraud in a federal court in Brooklyn for selling the digital tokens RECoin and Diamond Reserve Coin, tokens he falsely claimed were backed by real-world… Read More
The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Enforcement Director James M. McDonald delivered a speech yesterday addressing current trends regarding enforcement actions and, of course, crypto and virtual currencies were on the list. Speaking at the NYU School of Law, McDonald said the Commission is adapting… Read More
Today, the first enforcement action was taken by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a cryptocurrency exchange; EtherDelta. Prior to this, the SEC had only targeted issuers and promoters of crypto – largely for fraud and selling unregistered securities. While the action against EtherData is… Read More
The Texas State Securities Board has issued an emergency cease and desist order to two ostensible cryptocurrency miners. Yesterday, the C&Ds were placed against Quebec, Canada-based EXY Crypto, and AWS Mining PTY Ltd., based in Sydney, Australia. Texas Securities Commissioner Travis J. Iles issued a statement indicating the… Read More
On Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Division of Enforcement, issued their annual report updating on fiscal 2018 enforcement actions. According to the report, 2018 was a busy year as more than 821 enforcement actions occurred, representing a “diverse mix” of securities law transgressions…. Read More
Gal Vallerius, a dual French-Israeli citizen from the Brittany region of France, was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to, “conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder money,” court documents indicate. Mr Vallerius,… Read More
The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), the group that represents state, provincial and territorial securities regulators, has published their annual enforcement report for 2017. Each year, NASAA correlates a summary of all the legal actions, including penalties and criminal prosecution from the US, Canada and… Read More
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