On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it had settled charges against a blockchain technology startup, Enigma MPC, for violations of federal securities laws. The startup, based in San Francisco and Israel, was accused of conducting an unregistered offering of securities in the form of an initial coin offering. The company has agreed to return funds to harmed investors via a claims process, register its tokens as securities, file periodic reports with the SEC and pay a $500,000 penalty.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also announced recently that it had filed a civil enforcement action against a resident of Colorado and a Colorado LLC, Venture Capital Investments Ltd. The complaint charges that the defendants solicited U.S. residents to trade foreign currency contracts along with bitcoin and other digital assets through a commodity pool they operated. Rather than trade funds raised from approximately 72 individual investors, the defendants allegedly used at least $418,000 of the funds for personal expenses and to make Ponzi-type payments to other pool participants.
For more information and related news, please refer to the following links:
- ICO Issuer Settles SEC Registration Charges, Agrees to Return Funds and Register Tokens As Securities
- CFTC Charges Colorado Resident with Fraud in Digital Asset-Linked Ponzi Scheme
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
