{"id":24949,"date":"2023-03-22T22:12:50","date_gmt":"2023-03-23T02:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24949"},"modified":"2023-03-22T22:12:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-23T02:12:50","slug":"eight-celebrities-charged-by-us-regulators-with-participating-in-an-illegal-crypto-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/03\/22\/eight-celebrities-charged-by-us-regulators-with-participating-in-an-illegal-crypto-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"Eight celebrities charged by US regulators with participating in an illegal crypto scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\"><b class=\"ssrcss-hmf8ql-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Eight celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul, have been charged by US regulators with participating in an illegal crypto scheme.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">The stars allegedly used their social platforms to boost two crypto tokens without disclosing they were paid to promote them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">The charges were announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a\u00a0<a class=\"ssrcss-k17ofw-InlineLink e1no5rhv0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/press-release\/2023-59\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news release<\/a>\u00a0on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Lohan and Paul have paid to settle the charges without admitting guilt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">The other celebs charged are:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"unordered-list-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-1o5f7ft-BulletListContainer e5tfeyi0\">\n<ul role=\"list\">\n<li>Musician Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way)<\/li>\n<li>Singer Austin Mahone<\/li>\n<li>Porn actress Kendra Lust (Michele Mason)<\/li>\n<li>Rapper Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McCollum)<\/li>\n<li>Musician Ne-Yo (Shaffer Smith)<\/li>\n<li>Senegalese-American singer Aliaune Thiam (Akon)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">The group is accused of illegally promoting TRX and BTT crypto assets &#8220;without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation&#8221;, the SEC said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Justin Sun, a crypto investor and diplomat for the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, is also accused of fraud by manipulating the trading activity of the two tokens to make it appear as if they were actively being traded in a crime known as &#8220;wash trading&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Mr Sun, a Chinese-born prot\u00e9g\u00e9 of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, is known for having once paid $4.6m (\u00a33.7m) to have dinner with investor Warren Buffett.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">He is accused of &#8220;orchestrating a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were paid for their tweet&#8221;, the SEC added in their news release.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">His companies &#8211; Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd and Rainberry Inc (formerly BitTorrent) &#8211; are also charged as part of the scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">&#8220;This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure,&#8221; said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">&#8220;Sun and his companies not only targeted US investors in their unregistered offers and sales, generating millions in illegal proceeds at the expense of investors, but they also coordinated wash trading on an unregistered trading platform to create the misleading appearance of active trading.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">All of the celebrities, apart from Soulja Boy and Mahone, have paid a combined total of more than $400,000 to settle the charges.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Lohan, who is best known for her role in the 2004 film Mean Girls, had 8.4 million Twitter followers when she posted a message calling for her followers to invest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">The 36-year-old actress, who charging documents say is a resident of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, paid $10,000 to the SEC and another $30,000 in penalties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ssrcss-11r1m41-RichTextComponentWrapper ep2nwvo0\" data-component=\"text-block\">\n<div class=\"ssrcss-7uxr49-RichTextContainer e5tfeyi1\">\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph eq5iqo00\">Paul, a YouTuber, boxer and resident of Puerto Rico, was ordered to pay more than $100,000.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-us-canada-65046882\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">Eight celebrities, including Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul, have been charged by US regulators with participating in an illegal crypto scheme. The stars allegedly used their social platforms to boost two crypto tokens without disclosing <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/03\/22\/eight-celebrities-charged-by-us-regulators-with-participating-in-an-illegal-crypto-scheme\/\" title=\"Eight celebrities charged by US regulators with participating in an illegal crypto scheme\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[9297,8374,5016,9295,9296,8808,9298],"class_list":{"0":"post-24949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-btt","11":"tag-crypto-assets","12":"tag-crypto-currencies","13":"tag-illegal-crypto-scheme","14":"tag-trx","15":"tag-us-securities-and-exchange-commission","16":"tag-wash-trading","17":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24952,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949\/revisions\/24952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}