A new division of the Securities and Exchange Commission dedicated to so-called “initial coin offerings” (ICOs) filed its first charges on Friday, targeting a scam that reportedly raised $15 million from thousands of investors by promising a 13-fold profit in less than a month.
In a criminal complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court, the new SEC division, known as the Cyber Unit, describes how Dominic Lacroix sold digital tokens known as “PlexCoins” as part of a purported plan “to increase access to cryptocurrency services” across the world.
The token sale was a blatant rip-off, according to the SEC, which says Lacroix, who resides in Canada, has repeatedly broken securities laws in the past.
“This first Cyber Unit case hits all of the characteristics of a full-fledged cyber scam and is exactly the kind of misconduct the unit will be pursuing,” said Robert Cohen, Chief of the Cyber Unit, in a press statement. “We acted quickly to protect retail investors from this initial coin offering’s false promises.”
http://fortune.com/2017/12/04/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-sec-ico-scam/