This is a piece of shocking news that's coming from the US country and from the desks of SEC, that they have charged various allegations on popular celebrities viz.,
1. Lindsay Lohan
2. Jake Paul
3. Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way)
4. Singer Austin Mahone
5. Kendra Lust (Michele Mason)
6. Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McCollum)
7. Ne-Yo (Shaffer Smith)
8. Aliaune Thiam (Akon)
All of the mentioned celebrities were charged fees and penalties based on their involvement.
What they did is very simple. Through their Twitter accounts these guys have asked their followers to invest in specific coins which are more or less insider trading. The shocking news was, they were getting paid to have these tweets and influence others to invest in those coins.
SEC has filed charges based on these assumptions and found them guilty. In addition, none of the celebrities mentioned or declared that they were getting paid for such promotional activity. This aggravated the whole scene.
This type of behavior is really putting crypto on the wrong side of the border. SEC straight away stated this is why crypto is a risky investment and it can hamper the investments of other regular users. Not sure how it is going to impact the crypto but that's really bad if this kept happening over and over again.
The stars allegedly used their social platforms to boost two crypto tokens without disclosing they were paid to promote them.
The charges were announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a news release on Wednesday.
Lohan and Paul have paid to settle the charges without admitting guilt.
The other celebs charged are:
Musician Soulja Boy (DeAndre Cortez Way)
Singer Austin Mahone
Porn actress Kendra Lust (Michele Mason)
Rapper Lil Yachty (Miles Parks McCollum)
Musician Ne-Yo (Shaffer Smith)
Senegalese-American singer Aliaune Thiam (Akon)
The group is accused of illegally promoting TRX and BTT crypto assets "without disclosing that they were compensated for doing so and the amount of their compensation", the SEC said.
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 "wash trading".
Mr Sun, a Chinese-born protégé of Alibaba founder Jack Ma, is known for having once paid $4.6m (£3.7m) to have dinner with investor Warren Buffett.
He is accused of "orchestrating a promotional campaign in which he and his celebrity promoters hid the fact that the celebrities were paid for their tweet", the SEC added in their news release.
His companies - Tron Foundation Limited, BitTorrent Foundation Ltd and Rainberry Inc (formerly BitTorrent) - are also charged as part of the scheme.
"This case demonstrates again the high risk investors face when crypto asset securities are offered and sold without proper disclosure," said SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
"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."
All of the celebrities, apart from Soulja Boy and Mahone, have paid a combined total of more than $400,000 to settle the charges.
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.
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.
Paul, a YouTuber, boxer and resident of Puerto Rico, was ordered to pay more than $100,000.
Lindsay Lohan and Jake Paul hit with SEC charges over crypto scheme
