Former Louisiana deputy sheriff and Russian resident Steven Seagal agreed to a Cease and Desist (“C&D”) Order by the SEC, finding violations of the non-touting provisions of Securities Act § 17(b) and imposing civil penalties for acting as a Twitter and Facebook “brand ambassador” for cryptocurrency Bitcoiin2Gen without disclosing it was a paid endorsement.
The Order required Seagal to forego such opportunities for any issuer for three years, disgorge his endorsement fees and pay a civil penalty of a like amount over the coming year.
In 2017, the SEC’s Office of ...
On November 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced in a press release that it has settled charges against two celebrities for promoting investments in ICOs without disclosing payments received for the promotion. The SEC has previously indicated in a November 2017 statement to the public that investors should be wary of celebrity-backed ICOs, but these are the SEC's first cases against celebrities for promoting ICOs for compensation without appropriate disclosures.
Music producer Khaled Khaled (known as DJ Khaled) and professional boxer Floyd Mayweather ...
Last Friday, November 16, the SEC issued a pair of settled actions setting a de facto standard of compliance for unregistered ICOs wanting to "come in from the cold." In each of them, the ICO offeror paid a $250,000 monetary penalty, registered its ICO as a security, and entered a rescission undertaking respecting all tokens issued to date.
The first was a settled action by Paragon Coin - a digital token ("PRG") unregistered offeror in the cannabis industry. Paragon agreed to cease and desist, file a registration statement, and publicly offer rescission of the ICO. The Commission cited ...