The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Tron founder Justin Sun and three of his companies with an unregistered offering of securities in the form of Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT) tokens.
Today we charged crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix and BitTorrent.
Read more:https://t.co/4tXgKNof6Q
— U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (@SECGov) March 22, 2023
The regulator also believes that Sun and his wholly owned Tron Foundation, BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent) manipulated the TRX secondary market through “laundering trading.”
According to the statement, the defendants involved a number of celebrities in the scheme to advertise the assets for an undisclosed fee. In this regard, the SEC has filed charges of illegal promotion of TRX and / or BTT:
- actress Lindsay Lohan;
- video blogger Jake Paul;
- rappers Akon (Alian Thiam) and Soulja Boy (Deandre Cortez Way);
- singer Austin Mahone and Ne-Yo;
- porn star Kendra Last (Michelle Mason);
- hip-hop artist Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McColum).
With the exception of Mahone and Soulja Boy, they agreed to settle the claims by paying $400,000 in damages, penalties and interest, without acknowledging or denying the Commission’s findings.
The commission filed a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York.
Justin Sun called the allegations unfounded. He noted that the SEC’s regulatory framework for digital assets is “still in its infancy.”
The SEC’s civil complaint earlier today is just the latest example of actions it has taken against well known players in the blockchain and crypto space. We believe the complaint lacks merit, and in the meantime will continue building the most decentralized financial system.
— HE Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) March 23, 2023
Over the past 24 hours, the price of TRX has fallen by 7.4%. The coin is trading at $0.06 and with a capitalization of about $5.7 billion is in 16th place in the rating (CoinGecko).
Recall that in March it became known that the SEC sent subpoenas to the head DEX SushiSwap to Jared Gray and the decentralized autonomous organization Sushi DAO.
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