Announced September 18th 2019, the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged ICOBox and
its founder, Nikolay Evdokimov, with conducting an unregistered securities offering
and acting as an unregistered broker.
The SEC and ICOBox
Explained
The SEC has enforced its regulations in the digital asset
realm once again, this time charging ICOBox and its founder on numerous
accounts.
First, the SEC says ICOBox and its founder sold the company’s
tokens, dubbed ‘ICO’, to over 2,000 investors. The offering took place in 2017,
through a coin offering which was unregistered with the SEC.
Second, the SEC alleges that ICOBox acted as an unregistered
broker by facilitating ICOs for dozens of clients, which collectively raised
$650 million.
In addition, the SEC says the defendants told both investors
and prospective investors that their token’s value would increase over time,
once trading become available on the company’s platform.
However, the SEC says the tokens are now virtually
worthless:
“By ignoring the registration requirements of the federal securities laws, ICOBox and Evdokimov exposed investors to investments, which are now virtually worthless, without providing information that is critical to making informed investment decisions.”
The SEC has
officially charged both ICOBox and Evdokimov with violating federal securities
laws. The commission is seeking injunctive relief, disgorgement with
prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties.
The case marks one of several where the SEC has filed
lawsuits against ICOs for conducting unregistered securities offerings.
In June, the SEC
sued KiK over an ‘illegal securities offering’ after a $100 million ICO
back in 2017.
In August, the SEC
settled with Bitqyck after an alleged $13 million unregistered securities
offering, and did
the same with SimplyVital Health after a $6.3 million ICO.
SEC Chairman Jay
Clayton has said that virtually every ICO he has seen, constitutes a
securities offering. As a result, ICOs
have disappeared, while the regulatory compliant Security Token Offering
(STO) is on the
rise.
What do you think about the SEC suing ICOBox and its founder
after an alleged unregistered securities offering? We want to know what you
think in the comments section below.
Image courtesy of the SEC.
The post SEC Sues ICOBox After $14 Million ICO, Claims Asset is “Virtually Worthless” appeared first on The Tokenist.
