Washington: Tron founder Justin Sun and eight celebrities were charged with fraudulent promotion and sales of cryptocurrency, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a press release.
“The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against crypto asset entrepreneur Justin Sun and three of his wholly-owned companies, Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd., and Rainberry Inc. (formerly BitTorrent), for the unregistered offer and sale of crypto asset securities Tronix (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT),” the release said on Wednesday.
The SEC said Sun and his companies were also charged with fraudulently manipulating the secondary market through extensive “wash trading,” which involves the near-simultaneous purchase and sale of a security without changing ownership to generate false trading volumes.
The market watchdog simultaneously charged Lindsay Lohan and seven other celebrities for illegally touting TRX and/or BTT without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so, the release added.
The other celebrities listed on the release include Jake Paul, DeAndre Cortez Way (Soulja Boy), Austin Mahone, Michele Mason (Kendra Lust), Miles Parks McCollum (Lil Yachty), Shaffer Smith (Ne-Yo), and liaune Thiam (Akon).
With the exception of Cortez Way and Mahone, the release added, the celebrities charged agreed to pay a total of more than $400,000 in penalties without admitting or denying the allegations.
