The SEC was busy this week. It just charged Terraform Labs and CEO Do Kwon with fraud. The SEC sued the Singapore-based business and Do Hyeong Kwon with “orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud” on Feb. 16.
Grand Theft Auto V (GTA) calls the alleged crypto criminal “5-star wanted level.”
Terraform and Kwon “raised billions of dollars from investors by marketing and selling an inter-connected suite of crypto asset securities, many in unregistered transactions,” the SEC said.
Since Terraform Laboratories collapsed last year, Do Kwon has been on the run. South Korean officials last saw him in Serbia.
The SEC also referenced mAssets, crypto derivatives that track publicly traded company stock prices. It alleges the corporation exploited these to attract investors to the ecosystem.
The complaint says that Terraform and Kwon sold investors crypto asset security tokens MIR—or “mirror” tokens—and LUNA.
Kwon “marketed crypto asset securities to investors looking to gain a profit, consistently claiming that the tokens would increase in value.”
The SEC claimed they promoted UST as a “yield-bearing stablecoin” with 20% returns. Terraform allegedly misled investors on UST stability. The Terra/Luna ecosystem failed in May when the stablecoin de-pegged from the dollar. Its TerraClassicUSD version is worth $0.028. (USTC).
SEC Gary Gensler said:“They perpetrated fraud by repeating false and deceptive remarks to establish trust before creating terrible losses for investors.”
He said the case “demonstrates the lengths to which certain crypto businesses will try to avoid compliance with the securities laws.” Gensler and the agency insist crypto assets are securities. They are not legally recognized as such.
Kwon and the firm were charged in Manhattan federal court for the Southern District of New York. These include Securities and Exchange Act registration and anti-fraud violations.
Albright Capital voluntarily dismissed a Terraform Labs class-action lawsuit in January.
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