The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declared TRX and BTT securities and filed charges against the founder of Tron. The Commission also claimed that Sun manipulated the price of TRX in the secondary market.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken action against prominent cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, founder of TRON (TRX). The commission also accused eight other celebrities of promoting TRX and the BitTorrent token – BTT. The list includes Hollywood stars – Lindsay Lohan, influencers – Jake Paul, Austin Mahon, Michelle Mason, Aliaune Thiam aka Akon, Shaffer Smith, DeAndre Cortez Way and Miles Parks McCollum.
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In addition, the commission filed charges against the Tron Foundation, the BitTorrent Foundation, and Rainberry Inc. The allegations allege that the entities engaged in securities fraud by offering unregistered TRX and BTT sales. Press release for further reading,
“The SEC also alleges that Sun and his firm fraudulently manipulated the secondary market for TRX through extensive wash trading, which involved the simultaneous or near-simultaneous purchase and sale of securities to make it appear to be actively traded without an actual change in beneficial ownership. … …”
Tron’s Justin Sun faces securities law violations and fraud charges
The head of the Tron Foundation offered TRX and BTT through a bounty program, which led to people promoting the token on social media channels, the SEC said. The program also encourages investors to “create BitTorrent accounts in exchange for TRX and BTT allocations.” The charge also alleges that the companies and Sun airdropped BTT every month to those with TRX in their wallets, including U.S. citizens.
Additionally, the commission alleges that Sun manipulated the price of TRX in the secondary market between April 2018 and February 2019. Additionally, the creators of Tron earned a whopping $31 million from TRX sales. the complaint said,
“Sun allegedly directed his employees to conduct more than 600,000 TRX wash trades between two crypto asset trading platform accounts under his control, with 4.5 million to 7.4 million TRX wash trades per day. The scheme required a large supply of TRX, Sun allegedly provided these supplies.”
Notably, of the celebrities charged, six agreed to pay fines for promoting the tokens. Not on the list are rapper DeAndre Cortez Way aka Soulja Boy and singer Austin Mahone. Others have agreed to pay more than “$400,000 in disgorgement, interest and penalties to settle the charges, without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings.”
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