Tagged: fraud

March 20, 2018 @ 10:14 pm By Marina Evseeva  |  

The Russian Parliament has started finalizing a draft bill on cryptocurrency and digital tokens recognising them as assets that cannot be used in exchange for goods and services. The draft aims to define the scope of the regulations of cryptocurrencies, not their prohibition, according to… Read More

February 28, 2018 @ 4:52 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed charges against Steven J. Muehler, his wife Claudia M. Muehler, his associate Koorosh “Danny” Rahimi and and three companies under control. The SEC enforcement action alleges operating an unregistered broker dealer, facilitating unregistered securities, defrauding small businesses while promising… Read More

February 27, 2018 @ 8:14 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

ID Finance, the emerging markets fintech firm, announced on Tuesday it is incorporating behavioral biometrics into its AI-based fraud scoring engine to eliminate fraud while boosting loan approvals and reduce the incidence of non-performing loans. According to the company, the behavioral biometrics system studies the unique typing… Read More

February 22, 2018 @ 12:06 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Financial Services Markets Authority (FSMA) in Belgium has added its voice to the growing list of financial regulators warning consumers about fraud in the cryptocurrency realm. The FSMA says that recently a large number of new platforms offering the chance to invest in cryptocurrencies have… Read More

February 21, 2018 @ 6:24 pm By JD Alois  |  

  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) swooped in and filed fraud charges against a former Bitcoin-denominated platform and its founder Jon E. Montroll with operating an unregistered securities exchange and defrauding users of that exchange. The SEC added that the operator also made false and… Read More

February 12, 2018 @ 8:32 am By JD Alois  |  

The State of New Jersey has issued an emergency order halting Bitstrade, a firm that promised “investment profit guaranteed” via cryptocurrency related investment plans. Bitstrade posts that 960 “happy investors” have used their services. Bitstrade claims to be able to return 10% interest accrued daily… Read More

February 1, 2018 @ 12:09 pm By Todd R. Kornfeld, Irwin M. Latner and Johanna R. Collins-Wood  |  

Initial coin offerings (ICOs) have recently become very popular, causing investors of all levels of sophistication to consider buying ICO tokens (or coins). Regardless of whether you view ICO tokens as “investments,” or whether you want to buy tokens for their utility function to make… Read More

January 30, 2018 @ 3:56 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slammed the brakes on another initial coin offering (ICO) that flouted established securities laws. The SEC obtained a court order halting the AriseBank ICO that targeted retail investors to invest in the “world’s first decentralized bank. AriseCoin’s public… Read More

January 24, 2018 @ 10:37 am By JD Alois  |  

Digital threat management firm RiskIQ is out with a report that smartphone Apps are a hotbed for scams and hackers in the cryptocurrency space. Having reviewed 18,408 Apps across 20 different App stores, RiskIQ says it has uncovered 661 “blacklisted” Bitcoin Apps allowing crooks to… Read More

January 24, 2018 @ 9:40 am By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has shut down another initial coin offering with allegations of fraud. The ICO unfortunately named My Big Coin (MBC) ends up becoming My Big Con as the enforcement action has charged defendants Randall Crater of East Hampton, New York, Mark Gillespie of Hartland,… Read More

January 19, 2018 @ 8:50 am By JD Alois  |  

The CFTC Division of Enforcement Virtual Currency Task Force has been rather busy. Today, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has shared two enforcement actions filed against Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency related fraud cases. The first was against the Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, the second was filed against Defendants Patrick… Read More

January 19, 2018 @ 8:33 am By JD Alois  |  

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York against Defendants Dillon Michael Dean of Longmont, Colorado. Dean’s company, The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, is apparently registered in the UK. The documentation filed… Read More

January 8, 2018 @ 2:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has posted a warning regarding an entity calling itself Bluegate Industrial Bank USA, N.A.. The OCC said the firm claims to be an online financial institution offering regular banking products as well as loan services. Apparently… Read More

January 4, 2018 @ 12:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

The North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) has published a list of concerns and red flags regarding cryptocurrency investment offers. NASAA is the lobbying group that represents state and provincial securities regulators. Joseph Borg, the Director of the Alabama Securities Commission and current NASAA President… Read More

December 30, 2017 @ 10:51 am By Xu Gao  |  

CBRC Rumored to Suspend Private Banks’ Online Lending Activities 2017 marks the third anniversary of China’s private banks. Over the past three years, 17 private banks have been granted operation licenses. However, as the volume of these new institutions grew, the overall financial regulatory environment… Read More

December 4, 2017 @ 9:13 am By JD Alois  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission has obtained an emergency asset freeze to halt an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) scam that reportedly raised up to $15 million from thousands of investors since August. Dominic Lacroix, and his company, PlexCorps, had launched the PlexCoin ICO and falsely… Read More

December 2, 2017 @ 12:37 pm By Xu Gao  |  

People’s Bank of China Official Shares Opinions About Fintech Sandbox During the third development forum held by Shanghai Payment & Clearing Association, Li Wei, head of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) science and technology division, highlighted the importance of setting up trial-and-error mechanisms for… Read More

November 28, 2017 @ 9:08 am By Anthony Zeoli  |  

If you’ve been under a rock for the last year or so, you might not know that “initial coin offerings” or ICOs are the hottest thing in the financial market today. As if the fact that the overwhelming majority of ICOs aren’t regulated in any… Read More

November 20, 2017 @ 6:25 pm By JD Alois  |  

Confido, a small Initial Coin Offering (ICO), has vaporized. The site, Twitter acount and subbreddit is no more. This is a cautionary tale for anyone who may blindly invest in an ICO without doing proper due diligence as this one looks like it is on… Read More

November 15, 2017 @ 7:00 am By Erin Hobey  |  

WePay, an integrated payments provider for online platforms, released new data that shows a majority of US-based SMBs end the calendar year with at least one significant payments challenge which severely impacts their business. Conducted in partnership with Survata, an independent research firm, WePay polled more… Read More