Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Akon, & Lil Yachty Among A List Of Celebrities Who Were Recently Charged By The SEC For Crypto Fraud
Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Akon, & Lil Yachty Among A List Of Celebrities Who Were Recently Charged By The SEC For Crypto Fraud
Unfortunately, all coins aren’t good coins… literally!
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has reportedly charged Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Akon, and Lil Yachty, among others, for their involvement in a crypto promotion scheme.
According to reports, currency entrepreneur Justin Sun and his companies (Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc.) are currently under fire for illegally vending assets TRX and BTT, manipulating the market for one of his cooperations, and recruiting celebrities to endorse the brands for an undisclosed fee.
A recent press release read,
“The SEC’s complaint, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Sun and his companies offered and sold TRX and BTT as investments through multiple unregistered ‘bounty programs,’ which directed interested parties to promote the tokens on social media, join and recruit others to Tron-affiliated Telegram and Discord channels, and create BitTorrent accounts in exchange for TRX and BTT distributions.”
Allegedly, a now-sued Sun fraudulently “inflated” the volume of TRX, with millions of the token wash traded by the day.
The legal report added,
“From at least April 2018 through February 2019, Sun allegedly directed his employees to engage in more than 600,000 wash trades of TRX between two crypto asset trading platform accounts he controlled, with between 4.5 million and 7.4 million TRX wash traded daily. This scheme required a significant supply of TRX, which Sun allegedly provided. As alleged, Sun also sold TRX into the secondary market, generating proceeds of $31 million from illegal, unregistered offers and sales of the token.”
The digital tycoon was said to have Soulja Boy, Ne-Yo, Akon, and Lil Yachty on board as collaborative proponents for the business umbrellas, commissioning them to use their platforms to commercialize TRX and BTT. However, unbeknownst to the public, they were each secretly compensated for their stamp of approval.
Additionally, Lindsay Lohan, Jake Paul, Austin Mahone, and Kendra Lust were accused of participating in the crypto scam’s persuasion tactic.
As of now, all parties but Soulja Boy and Austin Mahone have assented to chalk up a whopping total of $400,000 to reach a settlement on their behalf.
What are your thoughts on this situation? Let us know in the comments below!