The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) maintains its tough stance once morest offers of cryptocurrencies considered securities. On Wednesday, March 22, the regulator ordered a jury trial for the creator of Tron, Justin Sun, for orchestrating the unlicensed offer and sale, manipulative trading and illegal promotion of crypto asset values.
The SEC said in a Press release that sued the well-known businessman and some of his companies, as well as celebrities. His companies mentioned in the release include the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation and BitTorrent (now known as Rainberry) regarding the token sale Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), which the regulator classified as unregistered cryptocurrencies.
In connection with the charges once morest Sun, we also charged 8 celebrities for illegally touting Sun’s crypto asset securities.
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) March 22, 2023
SEC NAMES EIGHT CELEBRITIES IN LAWSUIT
The regulator further alleged that the defendants “fraudulently manipulated” the TRX secondary market through a scheme of “extensive laundering negotiation”, boosting public interest in the two tokens with the help of celebrities. Point out:
“As alleged, Sun also sold TRX on the secondary market, generating $31 million in profits from illegal and unregistered deals and sales of the token.”
The celebrities TRX and MTB were American rapper DeAndre Cortez Way, popularly known as Soulja Boy; Austin Mahone; Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo); actress Lindsay Lohan; Michele Mason (Kendra Lust); YouTuber Jake Paul; and the musician Aliaune Thiam, also known as Akon.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, a critic of cryptocurrency, argued in the statement that the case serves as further evidence of the considerable risk investors face when crypto assets are issued and sold without proper disclosure.
He claimed that Sun and its companies did “unregistered offers” and sales specifically to US investors, generating millions of dollars in illicit profits at the investors’ expense.
Meanwhile, the other celebrities charged, except for Cortez Way and Mahone, reportedly agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 in “restitution, interest and penalties» to resolve the allegations without acknowledging or rebutting the SEC’s findings.
JUSTIN SUN TOKENS SUFFER A MASS SALE.
Following yesterday’s accusations of market manipulation, fraud, and other crimes, the price of Tron’s native TRX coin plummeted. The data from Coinmarketcap indicated that TRX, which was trading at $0.062 at the time of writing, had fallen 7.58% during the previous trading session. However, it has only recovered 0.41% in the last hour.
Other tokens related to Justin Sun, such as Huobi (HT), Just (JST) y Sun Token (SUN)also fell more than 5% on Wednesday.
