Thursday, March 23, 2023

SEC Charges Celebrities For Touting Crypto

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged eight celebrities--as well as a crypto entrepreneur--for illegally touting an unregistered offer and sale of two tokens. Celebrities charged in the scheme included Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, DeAndre Cortez Way (Soulja Boy), Austin Mahone, Michele Mason (Kendra Lust), Miles Parks McCollum (Lil Yachty), Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo), and Aliaune Thiam (Akon). The charges came alongside charges against crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his companies, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent), which the SEC claimed fraudulently manipulating the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading, which involves the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security to make it appear actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership.