‘Enforcement 40’ for 2020
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Join the Securities Litigation and Enforcement Group on LinkedInSEC Cashed in Big from Crypto ICOs in 2020 | Coinspeaker
The report noted that the record-breaking sum of money was realized by the Enforcement Division of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and they were proceeds from illegal income bordering on the activities of Wall Street firms, insider trading fines, ICOs amongst others. As highlighted, about $1.26 billion dollars was accrued from SEC nabbed unregistered […]
Crypto faces ‘The man who took on Wall Street’ | Modern Consensus.
Eleven cryptocurrency issuers and exchanges including Tron, Block.one, and Binance were hit with class action lawsuits over their initial coin offerings last week. The cases were filed on April 3, the last day possible under the statute of limitations. That was a year to the day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued its […]
Takeaways From the SEC’s Fight with Steven Seagal | LinkedIn
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that actor and famed martial artist Steven Seagal pumped up an initial coin offering (ICO) without telling investors he was getting paid a promotional fee to do so. Much like two prior 2018 SEC enforcement actions against Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled, the SEC’s Seagal enforcement action came as no […]
Actor Steven Seagal Charged With Unlawfully Touting Digital Asset Offering
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against actor Steven Seagal for failing to disclose payments he received for promoting an investment in an initial coin offering (ICO) conducted by Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G). The SEC’s order finds that Seagal failed to disclose he was promised $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of B2G tokens […]
SEC Halts Alleged $1.7 Billion Unregistered Digital Token Offering
According to the SEC’s complaint, Telegram Group Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary TON Issuer Inc. began raising capital in January 2018 to finance the companies’ business, including the development of their own blockchain, the “Telegram Open Network” or “TON Blockchain,” as well as the mobile messaging application Telegram Messenger. Defendants sold approximately 2.9 billion digital […]
SEC Charges Issuer With Conducting $100 Million Unregistered ICO
The Securities and Exchange Commission today sued Kik Interactive Inc. for conducting an illegal $100 million securities offering of digital tokens. The SEC charges that Kik sold the tokens to U.S. investors without registering their offer and sale as required by the U.S. securities laws. via SEC.gov | SEC Charges Issuer With Conducting $100 Million […]
Judge Reverses Blockvest Decision: ICOs Are Securities | LinkedIn
In an ICO St. Valentines Day Massacre, the Honorable Judge Gonzalo Curiel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California reconsidered and reversed his November 2018 Blockvest decision, sending a powerful message about the illegality of so-called initial coin offerings. As an early critic of Judge Curiel’s original Blockvest opinion (before […]
Meet the lawyers who pivoted from defending DUIs to advising initial coin offerings – MarketWatch
In 2017, a pair of young Houston lawyers focused on defending drunk drivers. The next year, they pivoted to initial coin offerings. Houston attorney Adam J. Wolfe signed at least 14 Form Ds for 9 different cryptotoken-related ventures as the “legal counsel” in 2018. Based on a MarketWatch analysis of ICO-related fundraising activity related to […]
Are ICO Tokens Securities? Startup Wants a Judge to Decide – WSJ
Social-media startup Kik Interactive Inc. of Waterloo, Ontario, plans to fight an expected enforcement action from the Securities and Exchange Commission over a 2017 initial coin online offering, Chief Executive Ted Livingston told The Wall Street Journal, setting the stage for a legal battle that could have broad ramifications for the digital-currency market. The SEC’s […]
Five Hidden Takeaways from the Khaled and Mayweather SEC Orders | LinkedIn
Never in the history of U.S. securities regulation has there been more distortion, spin and deception than in the crazy, mixed-up world of initial coin offerings (ICOs). Imagine an entire industry rising up where just about everything related to that industry is blatantly unlawful and often flat-out fraudulent. That is the nature of the ICO space and […]